Will AI replace Extruding and Drawing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic?
AI reaches little of this job’s work.
8/100
Low exposure
More exposed to AI than 17% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 0% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 12% of the work
What the job involves
Set up, operate, or tend machines to extrude or draw thermoplastic or metal materials into tubes, rods, hoses, wire, bars, or structural shapes.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Within reach(2)
- Determine setup procedures and select machine dies and parts, according to specifications.
- Select nozzles, spacers, and wire guides, according to diameters and lengths of rods.
Out of reach(14)
- Measure and examine extruded products to locate defects and to check for conformance to specifications, adjusting controls as necessary to alter products.
- Start machines and set controls to regulate vacuum, air pressure, sizing rings, and temperature, and to synchronize speed of extrusion.
- Clean work areas.
- Change dies on extruding machines, according to production line changes.
- Install dies, machine screws, and sizing rings on machines that extrude thermoplastic or metal materials.
and 9 more
Also called
Extruder Operator · Extrusion Press Operator · Tube Drawer · Wire Drawer · Extrusion Operator · Machine Operator · Wire Mill Rover · Draw Machine Operator
Related jobs
- Extruding and Forming Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Synthetic and Glass Fibers10/100
- Molding, Coremaking, and Casting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic4/100
- Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders9/100
- Multiple Machine Tool Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic12/100
- Cutting, Punching, and Press Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic2/100
What these numbers mean
The score is the share of this job’s work, weighted by how important and frequent each task is, that AI could do in half the time: tasks an AI model could do alone count in full, tasks that need software built on AI count half.
“AI already used” is the share of the work in tasks where people are recorded using AI today. “As AI tools mature” counts every task AI could halve, with or without extra software.
The percentile compares the score with every job’s, weighted by how many people in the US do each one. Exposure means AI could change how the work is done, not that the job goes away. These are estimates for the typical job, not predictions.
Sources
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs (task labels), Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), OpenAI and University of Pennsylvania
- Anthropic Economic Index: labor market impacts (task penetration), Anthropic
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (national and metropolitan areas), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics