Description
Set up, operate, and tend pulping machines to break down recycled paper, wood chips, or other fibrous materials into slurry, regulating consistency, chemicals, and flow for downstream processing.
- • Read work orders and production schedules to determine furnish, recipe, and batch specifications.
- • Observe pulper and stock prep systems to maintain flow, safety, and efficient operation and to detect malfunctions.
- • Start, stop, and adjust pulper drives, rotor speed, dilution water, and discharge valves.
- • Record operating data, batch numbers, temperatures, consistencies, and production totals.
- • Inspect incoming bales, chips, or waste streams to ensure quality standards; remove contaminants.
- • Measure stock consistency, temperature, and pH at specified intervals.
- • Clean, adjust, and perform minor maintenance on pulpers, screens, junk traps, and pumps.
- • Notify supervisors or maintenance of needed repairs or abnormal conditions.
- • Set controls for target dwell time, consistency, and rotor load per specifications.
- • Reject off-spec pulp and adjust settings or recipes to correct issues.
- • Keep floors, decks, and work areas clean and free of fiber and water.
- • Move bales, chips, and additives to and from the pulper using forklifts, hoists, or hand tools.
- • Clear ragger ropes, debris, and other jams from pulpers and conveyors using hand tools following lockout/tagout.
- • Inspect belts, drive couplings, ragger ropes, and screens for wear or damage.
- • Tend accessory equipment, such as ragger, detrashers, pumps, screens, and conveyors, to move stock through the system.
- • Test pulp samples for consistency, freeness, dirt count, and brightness using test equipment.
- • Collect samples from chests, lines, and discharge points for laboratory testing.
- • Label chests, totes, and bins with furnish type, batch, and date.
- • Regulate water addition and chemical feeds to achieve target consistency and slurry quality.
- • Load bales, chips, or wastepaper into pulpers using bale breakers, hoists, or hand tools.
- • Add chemicals such as caustic, defoamers, enzymes, or bleaching agents per recipe.
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Tasks & skills:
O*NET occupational data (work activities, skills, knowledge).
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
