Metallurgical Lab Technician

Job Summary

The Metallurgical Lab Technician supports daily metallurgical laboratory operations for aerospace manufacturing, heat treat verification, and customer-required laboratory testing.

Duties/Responsibilities

• Perform daily check-in of product received from Heat Treat, including review of work order books, verification of part counts, confirmation of test-piece or sectioned-piece quantities, and update of applicable operations.
• Manage test pieces, coupons, carbon bars, v-notches, and other laboratory samples, including procurement, tracking, stamping, routing, staging, retrieval, and control of samples needed for current work orders and future testing.
• Stamp or sign off assigned operations only when work has been completed in accordance with the applicable router, work instruction, customer requirement, and internal authorization.
• Support product movement through the metallurgical lab and onward to the next operation, ensuring that parts, test pieces, and paperwork remain properly identified and traceable.
• Enter MS1 splits, close out assigned operations in Visual or other production systems and maintain accurate status visibility for jobs requiring metallurgical laboratory processing.
• Perform routine FOD removal, maintain laboratory cleanliness, and ensure that work areas, test pieces, containers, saws, and support equipment are kept in a condition suitable for aerospace product handling.
• Perform designated Rockwell hardness testing, including daily verification, verification record completion, proper scale selection, part support, test location control, and escalation of suspect or invalid results.
• Review, file, retrieve, and organize certifications, heat treat records, x-ray records, test records, and other supporting documentation required for product traceability and customer shipment packages.
• Collect and archive test coupons, heat treat certs, x-ray material & reports according to work order numbers, label boxes, organize records, and archive documentation so that records can be retrieved efficiently during audits, investigations, or customer reviews.
• Operate the automatic cut-off saw for approved sectioning activities, including setup, part identification, controlled cutting, coolant checks, swarf removal, and cleaning after use. Perform routine saw maintenance and housekeeping, including weekly cleaning, coolant filling, and removal of accumulated swarf or debris.
• Section customer, or internal test parts in accordance with approved instructions, maintaining orientation, location, identification, and traceability of all metallurgical samples.

Additional Duties/Responsibilities

• Prepare metallographic samples for evaluation, including mounting, grinding, polishing, cleaning, and preservation of areas of interest such as case depth, IGO/IGA, white layer, nitrided layers, carburized/decarburized regions, and coating or near-surface features.
• Document actual test readings, verification results, specimen preparation details, etchants used when applicable, equipment identification, and other required information on laboratory forms or electronic systems.
• Aid in certificate generation, customer documentation, and material verification activities for customer-specific work packages.
• Support internal audits, NADCAP self-audits, customer audits, job audits, and observation-of-test activities by maintaining complete, organized, and retrievable laboratory records.
• Participate in training, qualification, competency checks, internal round robin testing, proficiency testing support, and other activities required to demonstrate laboratory competence.
• Escalate nonconforming conditions, suspect data, damaged samples, missing paperwork, equipment concerns, calibration issues, traceability breaks, or unclear requirements to the Metallurgical Engineer, Quality, or supervision before proceeding.
• Maintain product quality and manufacturing accuracy by properly using inspection equipment.
• Keep accurate records and files, such as Material Certifications, First Article Inspection Reports (AS9102), Inspection Method Sheets (IMS), First Piece Inspection.
• Understand and interpret aerospace blueprints and geometrical tolerancing.
• Use or learn laboratory equipment such as automatic cut-off saws, mounting equipment, grinders/polishers, Rockwell hardness testers, Vickers microhardness equipment, microscopes, and related measuring equipment.
• Perform formal metallurgical laboratory training and documented qualification before independently performing higher-level technical tasks such as hardness testing, microhardness verification, metallographic preparation, white layer preparation, IGO/IGA preparation/evaluation, or other NADCAP-controlled laboratory activities.
• Recognize abnormal conditions and stop work or escalate issues before product acceptance is affected.

Qualifications

• High school diploma or equivalent required; technical certificate, associate degree, or relevant manufacturing/laboratory experience preferred.
• Experience in aerospace manufacturing, heat treat, materials testing, quality inspection, machining, or metallurgical sample preparation preferred.
• Ability to follow written work instructions, laboratory procedures, customer specifications, and ASTM/AMS-based test methods.
• Ability to maintain accurate records, perform basic shop math, understand part traceability, and work within production systems such as Visual, Job Tracker and Visual Plus.
• Ability to handle customer hardware carefully and maintain FOD control, cleanliness, sample identity, and work order discipline.
• Ability to use or learn laboratory equipment such as automatic cut-off saws, mounting equipment, grinders/polishers, Rockwell hardness testers, Vickers microhardness equipment, microscopes, and related measuring equipment.
• Formal metallurgical laboratory training and documented qualification are required before independently performing higher-level technical tasks.
• Ability to recognize abnormal conditions and stop work or escalate issues before product acceptance is affected.

Physical Requirements

• Ability to remain seated for long periods of time while working on a computer or documentation, etc.
• Must have manual dexterity to operate computer keyboard and standard office equipment.
• Must be capable of withstanding long periods of viewing data on a computer screen and/or paper format.