Plating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
Production Occupations- O*NET-SOC code
- 51-4193.00
Set up, operate, or tend plating machines to coat metal or plastic products with chromium, zinc, copper, cadmium, nickel, or other metal to protect or decorate surfaces. Typically, the product being coated is immersed in molten metal or an electrolytic solution.
AI exposure
- Data source: BLSPublished: 2026-08
Low· relative
LowFour relative bandsVery highGroup-level value
Scale, basis and source
Four relative bands (Low / Moderate / High / Very high)
831 detailed occupations in the BLS Employment Projections table. Assigned per National Employment Matrix (NEM) code, so occupations sharing a NEM code carry the same band
- Data source: AnthropicPublished: 2026-03
0.000
0.000Range of values carried here0.745Scale, basis and source
Observed exposure index, 0–1 as published
Mapped onto O*NET tasks
Published per SOC 2018 occupation; every O*NET occupation with the same SOC 2018 code carries this value
- Data source: ILOPublished: 2025
0.17–0.20· 2 ISCO-08 groups
Scale, basis and source
Generative AI exposure index, 0–1 as published
Published per ISCO-08 unit group. Linked to this occupation, wholly or in part, by applying U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics crosswalks (ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC, 2010 SOC to 2018 SOC) as published
What kind of figure this source publishes
The BLS category is a relative rank, not an absolute level, and it is not a first-hand measurement: it groups an occupation's percentile ranks across several published studies into four bands. It is not an employment or wage forecast, not a probability of adoption, and it does not separate automation from augmentation.
ILO value for each linked ISCO-08 group
- ISCO-08 8122Metal Finishing, Plating and Coating Machine Operators0.20
- ISCO-08 8142Plastic Products Machine Operators0.17
AI exposure (OpenAI rubric)
38 rated tasks · 4 tasks with β ≥ 0.5 (10.5%)
β = direct exposure (E1) + 0.5 × exposure when tools are available (E2), per the source repository's definition.
- Source unit: O*NET 27.2 tasks → O*NET 31.0 occupation code
- 5 rated tasks are not in the O*NET 31.0 task list; their scores are kept as published for O*NET 27.2.
- Source
- OpenAI "GPTs are GPTs" exposure rubric
- Release
- gh-main-0471612
- License
- MIT License, Copyright (c) 2024 OpenAI
Tasks
Task statements from the O*NET® 31.0 Database, core tasks first.
| Task | Type | β (OpenAI) |
|---|---|---|
| Inspect coated or plated areas for defects, such as air bubbles or uneven coverage. | Core | 0.5 |
| Immerse workpieces in coating solutions or liquid metal or plastic for specified times. | Core | 0 |
| Set up, operate, or tend plating or coating machines to coat metal or plastic products with chromium, zinc, copper, cadmium, nickel, or other metal to protect or decorate surfaces. | Core | 0 |
| Maintain production records. | Core | 1 |
| Remove objects from solutions at periodic intervals and observe objects to verify conformance to specifications. | Core | 0 |
| Observe gauges to ensure that machines are operating properly, making adjustments or stopping machines when problems occur. | Core | 0 |
| Adjust dials to regulate flow of current and voltage supplied to terminals to control plating processes. | Core | 0 |
| Rinse coated objects in cleansing liquids and dry them with cloths, centrifugal driers, or by tumbling in sawdust-filled barrels. | Core | 0 |
| Examine completed objects to determine thicknesses of metal deposits, or measure thicknesses by using instruments such as micrometers. | Core | 0.5 |
| Remove excess materials or impurities from objects, using air hoses or grinding machines. | Core | 0 |
| Immerse objects to be coated or plated into cleaning solutions, or spray objects with conductive solutions to prepare them for plating. | Supplemental | 0 |
| Position and feed materials into processing machines, by hand or by using automated equipment. | Supplemental | 0 |
| Test machinery to ensure that it is operating properly. | Supplemental | 0 |
| Operate hoists to place workpieces onto machine feed carriages or spindles. | Supplemental | 0 |
| Adjust controls to set temperatures of coating substances and speeds of machines and equipment. | Supplemental | 0 |
| Position containers to receive parts, and load or unload materials in containers, using dollies or handtrucks. | Supplemental | 0 |
| Perform equipment maintenance, such as cleaning tanks and lubricating moving parts of conveyors. | Supplemental | 0 |
| Clean and maintain equipment, using water hoses and scrapers. | Supplemental | 0 |
| Determine sizes and compositions of objects to be plated, and amounts of electrical current and time required. | Supplemental | 0 |
| Suspend sticks or pieces of plating metal from anodes, or positive terminals, and immerse metal in plating solutions. | Supplemental | 0 |
| Monitor and measure thicknesses of electroplating on component parts to verify conformance to specifications, using micrometers. | Supplemental | 0 |
| Measure or weigh materials, using rulers, calculators, and scales. | Supplemental | 0 |
| Suspend objects, such as parts or molds from cathode rods, or negative terminals, and immerse objects in plating solutions. | Supplemental | 0 |
| Measure, mark, and mask areas to be excluded from plating. | Supplemental | 0 |
| Mix and test solutions, and turn valves to fill tanks with solutions. | Supplemental | 0 |
| Place plated or coated materials on racks and transfer them to ovens to dry for specified periods of time. | Supplemental | 0 |
| Read production schedules to determine setups of equipment and machines. | Supplemental | 1 |
| Position objects to be plated in frames, or suspend them from positive or negative terminals of power supplies. | Supplemental | 0 |
| Measure and set stops, rolls, brushes, and guides on automatic feeders and conveying equipment or coating machines, using micrometers, rules, and hand tools. | Supplemental | 0 |
| Preheat workpieces in ovens. | Supplemental | 0 |
| Replace worn parts and adjust equipment components, using hand tools. | Supplemental | 0 |
| Clean workpieces, using wire brushes. | Supplemental | 0 |
| Operate sandblasting equipment to roughen and clean surfaces of workpieces. | Supplemental | 0 |
Occupation information
Sources and attribution
This page includes information from the O*NET® 31.0 Database (https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html) by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. AI Changing Work has modified all or some of this information: the O*NET-SOC code, title and task statements are reproduced in English without change; task-type labels are shown in the page's language and tasks are listed core first; any Korean occupation title shown on the Korean-language page is AI Changing Work's translation; any KSCO-8 unit groups linked to this occupation were paired with it by AI Changing Work's judgment, and the relation labels and statuses are AI Changing Work's additions. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications.
Any AI exposure figures on this page are published by third parties, not by AI Changing Work, and none is part of the O*NET information. OpenAI publishes task-level scores (MIT License) for O*NET 27.2 task statements; each is shown next to the O*NET 31.0 task statement with the same task ID, whose wording can differ from the 27.2 statement that was scored. OpenAI also publishes occupation-level scores for O*NET-SOC codes in the same release, and any such score is shown on the O*NET occupation with the same code. Anthropic publishes an observed exposure index in the Anthropic Economic Index (CC-BY), and the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes relative AI exposure categories (public domain); both are published per SOC code, and each value is shown on every O*NET occupation with that code. The International Labour Organization publishes a generative AI exposure index in ILO Working Paper 140 (CC BY 4.0) for ISCO-08 unit groups; AI Changing Work links those groups to O*NET occupations by applying the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC and 2010 SOC to 2018 SOC crosswalks as published, without case-by-case selection, and these crosswalks match many groups only in part. Where several unit groups are linked, each group's published value is listed, and any summary shows only the lowest and highest of those values with the number of groups; no exposure figure is averaged or recalculated. Any employment figures are published by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics for the SOC group containing this occupation. Each source is credited where its figures are shown.
O*NET OnLine: 51-4193.00 Plating Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic
KSCO 코드·명칭: 한국표준직업분류(제8차 개정) — 통계청 고시 제2024-328호 (2024-07-01 고시, 2025-01-01 시행). 저작권법 제7조 제2호의 고시 항목이다. 명칭 표기(가운뎃점·띄어쓰기)는 해설서 2차 정오 반영판의 표기를 따랐으며, 고시 항목표와는 18개 명칭에서 가운뎃점 글리프나 띄어쓰기만 다르다. 통계청은 2025년 10월 국가데이터처로 개편되었다. 이 페이지의 KSCO 연결은 통계청·국가데이터처의 공식 연계표가 아니다.