Millwright

Millwright
Occupation
Occupation type
Vocational
Activity sectors
Construction
Industrial manufacturing
Description
CompetenciesPatience, steady hand, ability to read plans, physically strong
Education required
Industrial Training Institute, Apprenticeship
Fields of
employment
Construction
Industrial manufacturing
Related jobs
Machinist, Maintenance Technician

A millwright is a craftsman or skilled tradesman who installs, dismantles, maintains, repairs, reassembles, and moves machinery in factories, power plants, and construction sites.[1]

The term millwright (also known as industrial mechanic[2]) is mainly used in the United States, Canada and South Africa to describe members belonging to a particular trade. Other countries use different terms to describe tradesmen engaging in similar activities. Related but distinct crafts include machinists, mechanics and mechanical fitters.

As the name suggests, the original function of a millwright was the construction of flour mills, sawmills, paper mills and fulling mills powered by water or wind, made mostly of wood with a limited number of metal parts.[3] Since the use of these structures originates in antiquity, millwrighting could arguably be considered one of the oldest engineering trades and the forerunner of modern mechanical engineering.[4]

In modern usage, a millwright is engaged with the erection of machinery. This includes such tasks as leveling, aligning, & installing machinery on foundations or base plates, or setting, leveling, & aligning electric motors or other power sources such as turbines with the equipment, which millwrights typically connect with some type of coupling.

  1. ^ "Millwright". sokanu.com. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
  2. ^ "Industry Training Authority (ITA)". itabc.ca. Retrieved 4 January 2017.
  3. ^ Evans, Oliver; Cadwallader Evans; Thomas Ellicott (1848). The young mill-wright and miller's guide, 12th edition. Lea & Blanchard.
  4. ^ "Union Millwrights Machine Erectors". UnionMillwright.com. Retrieved 4 January 2017.