What is a Union Millwright anyway?

 

Wow! What a loaded question. Even the seasoned-pro Union Millwrights have a tough time answering that one, but here's our best shot.

The Millwright is the oldest engineering trade, being the origin of the modern mechanical engineer.  Historically, many famous engineers and companies started out as millwrights and many machines were created and developed by them.  Water mills have existed since the Roman period in Europe along with wind mills since the 12th century, and Millwrights have been looking after them ever since.

The term Millwright is derived from the two words mill and wright.  Mill from the meaning of water mills, wind mills, flour mills, etc.  Wright, meaning "one who constructs".  Therefore, we get Millwright, or someone who builds mills.   Although we have evolved greatly from the origins thanks to technology, these places still have a need for the Union Millwright.  We work on and in just about every conceivable place.  Wherever someone needs precision, ingenuity, and eye for detail, you're sure to find a Union Millwright.  Below are some examples of the places we work, machines that need us, and procedures we use.


Millwrights from the Knapp-Stout & Co. lumber mill  circa mid-19th. century.

Where What How
  • Food Processing Plants
  • Power Generation Plants
  • Paper Mills
  • Steel Mills
  • Packaging Plants
  • Automobile Factories
  • Airports
  • Grain Elevators
  • Refineries
  • Aerospace
  • Breweries
  • Forest Products
  • Post Offices
  • Printing Shops
  • Mining
  • Many other Industrial Facilities

 

  • Conveyors (all types)
  • Turbines
  • Generators
  • Pumps
  • Bearings
  • Sprockets
  • Shredders
  • Hydraulic Systems

 

  • Compressors
  • Machinery Moving
  • Bridge cranes
  • Shop Fabrication
  • Just about any other piece of equipment that requires precision

 

 

  • Blueprint Reading
  • Geometry / Layout
  • Hoisting / Rigging
  • Alignment
  • Optical Jigs / Levels
  • Hand Tools
  • Power Tools
  • Stationary machinery
  • Precision hand tools
  • Engineering
  • Cutting
  • Welding
  • Cleaning
  • A good Union
    Millwright brain
  • Almost any other means to get the job done

 

The above list is by no means all-inclusive.  The where, what, and how of Union Millwrighting is endless.  If you really want some fun reading material, below is the much more specific definition of a Union Millwright.

 

The machinery, equipment and associated components listed below which is identified for the purpose of description only, falls within the jurisdiction of the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America (Millwrights).

Although some components of machinery and/or equipment may be described in one application or location and not in another, it shall not be excluded from our autonomy when, to avoid repetition, it is not described in other applications.

The term Millwright and Machinery Erectors shall mean unloading, hoisting, rigging by any means, transferring, moving, cleaning, disassembling, assembling, welding, burning, erecting, calibrating, aligning, starting-up and testing, adjusting, repairing, and the maintaining of all machinery and equipment, be it powered by, or receiving power from, steam, gas, gasoline, diesel, jet, electric, pneumatic, water, solar, thermal, mineral, atomic, rocket, nuclear, chemical or any other source, regardless of whether temporarily or permanently installed or located.

Some of the locations in which you may find machinery, equipment and their components are: woodworking, canning, food, and computer industries, steel, metal, plastic, and glass manufacturing or recycling plants, foundries, ore reduction plants, stamping facilities, coffee roasting plants, paper, cellophane and film industries, fees and saw mills, rock, gravel, sand washing, stone crushing, cement and asphalt plants, water, sewage and chemical treatment plants, laundries, kitchens, restaurants, hospitals, bakeries, fertilizing and mixing plants, can, ice, bottle and bag manufacturing plants, textile, flour, and paint mills, breweries, milk, rendering and meat processing plants, locks and dams, coal yards, sugar refineries, post offices, package handling centers, incinerators, co-generation, coal gasification and power plants, automotive, truck and/or similar manufacturing type factories, bio-research facilities, the amusement, recreational and entertainment fields.

Millwrights shall set all engines, motors, dynamos, generators, diesel generators, motor restraints, install, measure, and align with optical instruments when necessary the reactors, control, push and shut-down rods, rod pressure housing drives, guide sleeves and other related equipment in reactors, turbines, castings, cylinders, diaphragms, rotors, blade rings, blade or bucket assemblies, hydrogen coolers, blower assemblies, packing joints on hydrogen coolers, exciter Alterex and all others, turning gears, extension box, welding of extension box, lagging, stretching of coupling bolts or others, perform oil flush, install turbine lube oil tank, pumps and related component skids, filters, thrust bearings, the sweating on and shrinking of bearings, couplings, shafts and others, sole plates and machine bases, perform all precision grouting using the following materials, epoxy, wet, non-shrink, dri-packing or other types, demineralizing, hydromation and mechanical dust systems, sensors, air compressors, super chargers, coolers, boiler controls and linkage, Bailey Meters or similar devices and their linkages, fluid drives, embedded guides for traveling screens, traveling screens, roller, slide, knife, lock and sluice grates, limit torques on mechanical valves, grates and others, tainter valves, limit switches, trips, triggers or switches including the brackets that are attached to, stop logs, dam rollers, transfer cars, gear head motors.

The setting of variable drives, fans, coal cranes, truck cranes or other types, including the servicing, adjusting and aligning of mechanical equipment within the cranes, crane rails and all other types of rails which would carry mechanically activated equipment, including components, packaging equipment, refrigerating equipment, chillers, and related equipment, lantern rings, packing glands, packing for pumps, pollution equipment, carbon absorbers, heat exchanges, grain, ball, hammer, roller mills and others, crushers and beaters, hoppers, bins, chutes and spouts, turn tables, shears, casing machines, robots, air-veyors of all sizes, types, and styles regardless of the material they are constructed with, including their supports, people movers, jetways, magnetic separators, hoists, feeding machinery, Z-loaders, S-loaders, palletizers, Triax equipment, mechanical equipment in scrubbers, pack towers, precipitators, cooling towers and air cooled condensers.

The setting of thru-clean bar, straight line bar, trash, tritor drum, and disc screens, straight line grit, circuline grit, circuline sludge, and circuline mixer collectors, straight line, flash, horizontal slow, vertical slow, and vibra-flow feeder machines, pre-aeration and settling tanks, cover tanks, bowels and basins including stationary or mechanical covers regardless of dyna-grind sewage screening grinders, screw pumps, hydropulpers, spiral classifier, agitators, blowers, grizzly screens, trammels, table feeders, dryers, optical sorters, high tension separators, grip dewatering screens, filter, cone and rotary presses, comminutors, barminutors, degreasers, rotometers, dehumidifiers, benches, washers for cars, trucks, buses, trains, and other types, hydraulic units, shroud boxes, silencers, scales, load cells, eddy current clutches, disintegrators, dehairing machines, grain handling devices, laboratory equipment, machine shop equipment, ladle cars, stunning pens and doors, activation equipment, racks, material handling platforms, transition pieces, the handling and installation of pulleys, gears, sheaves and fly wheels, air, vacuum, worm, belt, friction, rope, chain and gear drives that are directly or indirectly coupled to motors, belts, chains, shafts, or screws, installation of legs, boot guards and boot tanks, all bin and diverter valves, turn hands and indicators, shafting, bearing cable sprockets, cutting of all key seats in old and new work, troughs, chippers, calendars, rolls winders, rewinders, slitters, cutters, wrapping machines, blowers, forging machines, pneumatic, electric and hydraulic rams, extractors, expellers and extruders, ball and dust collectors, splicing of ropes and cables.

The laying out, fabrication and installation of protecting equipment including: machinery guards, making and setting of templates for machinery, fabrication of bolts, nuts, pans, drilling of holes in machinery for any equipment which the Millwrights install regardless of materials, all welding and burning regardless of the type, fabrication of all lines, hose or tubing used in the lubrication, operation, cooling or heating of machinery including the installation of all fluids used to operate, lubricate, cool or heat equipment installed by Millwrights, cleaning of machinery before turnover to owner, machining, grinding, milling, broaching, boring, threading, lapping and keying that may be necessary for any part of equipment, including the starting up, breaking in, and trial running of any equipment or machinery installed by the Millwrights.

Rock, sand and gravel plants, batch or aggregate plants, recycling equipment, crushers, conveyors, or other mechanical equipment used (for the purpose of description only) to excavate material from one area to another from highways, roadways, or elsewhere.

When optical instruments such as automatic levels, builder’s transits, precision jig transits, tilting levels, theodilites or other precision tools and instruments are used to locate and set machines, these tools are considered a tool of this trade and are to be used by Millwrights to set their equipment.

Awesome stuff, huh?

 


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