A professional who sets up and operates automated cutting machine to cut assorted materials, such as graphite, bleeder and breather cloth, and fiberglass, used in manufacturing composite (fiber reinforced plastic) aircraft parts and assemblies. Responsibilities include:

• Reads cutting requests to determine job specifications, such as part identification number, type and quantity of material required, and cutting instructions.
• Mounts material onto machine fixture or dispensing device, manually or using overhead crane and handtools.
• Pulls specified length of material over machine cutting table and cuts material, using knife.
• Positions material on machine cutting table, following blueprints, sketches, and other specifications, using measuring instruments.
• Pulls and positions additional plies of material onto cutting table.
• Positions cutter above material plies in specified location.
• Loads machine control media or enters commands in computer control console to retrieve preprogrammed cutting instructions.
• Enters commands to activate vacuum that secures materials to table, identify cutter location coordinates, and start machine.
• Monitors operation of cutting machine to detect malfunctions and informs supervisor or programmer of problem.
• Removes cut plies from table, marks part identification on plies, and bags and labels cut material for subsequent production use.
• Sets up and operates machine to cut test pattern from sample material, and obtains approval of test pattern by quality control, programming, or other authorized personnel prior to cutting production materials.
• Removes and replaces broken or worn blades, using handtools.