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Insulation Workers, Mechanical

It's a bright outlook for

This career will grow rapidly in the next few years.

Learn more about what they do.

Apply insulating materials to pipes or ductwork, or other mechanical systems in order to help control and maintain temperature.

Related: Drywall & Ceiling Tile Installers Floor Layers Insulation Workers, Floor, Ceiling, & Wall Pipelayers Sheet Metal Workers

Industries: Construction

Summary
Details

Cover, seal, or finish insulated surfaces or access holes with plastic covers, canvas strips, sealants, tape, cement, or asphalt mastic.
Cover, seal, or finish insulated surfaces or access holes with plastic covers, canvas strips, sealants, tape, cement, or asphalt mastic.
Fit insulation around obstructions, and shape insulating materials and protective coverings as required.
Prepare surfaces for insulation application by brushing or spreading on adhesives, cement, or asphalt, or by attaching metal pins to surfaces.
Determine the amounts and types of insulation needed, and methods of installation, based on factors such as location, surface shape, and equipment use.
Read blueprints and specifications to determine job requirements.
Apply, remove, and repair insulation on industrial equipment, pipes, ductwork, or other mechanical systems such as heat exchangers, tanks, and vessels, to help control noise and maintain temperatures.
Prepare surfaces for insulation application by brushing or spreading on adhesives, cement, or asphalt, or by attaching metal pins to surfaces.
Measure and cut insulation for covering surfaces, using tape measures, handsaws, knives, and scissors.
Measure and cut insulation for covering surfaces, using tape measures, handsaws, knives, and scissors.
Select appropriate insulation, such as fiberglass, Styrofoam, or cork, based on the heat retaining or excluding characteristics of the material.
Install sheet metal around insulated pipes with screws to protect the insulation from weather conditions or physical damage.

Equipment Maintenance
- Planning and doing the basic maintenance on equipment.
Systems Evaluation
- Measuring how well a system is working and how to improve it.
Management of Financial Resources
- Making spending decisions and keeping track of what is spent.
Technology Design
- Making equipment and technology useful for customers.
Time Management
- Managing your time and the time of other people.
Science
- Using scientific rules and strategies to solve problems.
Equipment Selection
- Deciding what kind of tools and equipment are needed to do a job.
Judgment and Decision Making
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different options and picking the best one.
Coordination
- Changing what is done based on other people's actions.
Monitoring
- Keeping track of how well people and/or groups are doing in order to make improvements.
Active Learning
- Figuring out how to use new ideas or things.
Social Perceptiveness
- Understanding people's reactions.
Active Listening
- Listening to others, not interrupting, and asking good questions.
Operations Monitoring
- Watching gauges, dials, or display screens to make sure a machine is working.
Repairing
- Repairing machines or systems using the right tools.
Programming
- Writing computer programs.
Quality Control Analysis
- Testing how well a product or service works.
Troubleshooting
- Figuring out what is causing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs to not work.
Persuasion
- Talking people into changing their minds or their behavior.
Learning Strategies
- Using the best training or teaching strategies for learning new things.
Speaking
- Talking to others.
Operations Analysis
- Figuring out what a product or service needs to be able to do.
Management of Personnel Resources
- Selecting and managing the best workers for a job.
Installation
- Installing equipment, machines, wiring, or computer programs.
Complex Problem Solving
- Noticing a problem and figuring out the best way to solve it.
Operation and Control
- Using equipment or systems.
Systems Analysis
- Figuring out how a system should work and how changes in the future will affect it.
Mathematics
- Using math to solve problems.
Service Orientation
- Looking for ways to help people.
Critical Thinking
- Thinking about the pros and cons of different ways to solve a problem.
Negotiation
- Bringing people together to solve differences.
Instructing
- Teaching people how to do something.
Management of Material Resources
- Managing equipment and materials.
Reading Comprehension
- Reading work-related information.
Writing
- Writing things for co-workers or customers.

Glare Sensitivity
- Seeing something even if there is a glare or very bright light.
Extent Flexibility
- Bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Flexibility of Closure
- Seeing hidden patterns.
Arm-Hand Steadiness
- Keeping your arm or hand steady.
Problem Sensitivity
- Noticing when problems happen.
Visual Color Discrimination
- Noticing the difference between colors, including shades and brightness.
Speech Recognition
- Recognizing spoken words.
Night Vision
- Seeing at night or under low light.
Peripheral Vision
- Seeing something to your side when your are looking ahead.
Hearing Sensitivity
- Telling the difference between sounds.
Auditory Attention
- Paying attention to one sound while there are other distracting sounds.
Speed of Limb Movement
- Quickly moving your arms and legs.
Time Sharing
- Doing two or more things at the same time.
Perceptual Speed
- Quickly comparing groups of letters, numbers, pictures, or other things.
Finger Dexterity
- Putting together small parts with your fingers.
Number Facility
- Adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing.
Stamina
- Exercising for a long time without getting out of breath.
Reaction Time
- Quickly moving your hand, finger, or foot based on a sound, light, picture or other command.
Trunk Strength
- Using your lower back and stomach.
Wrist-Finger Speed
- Making fast, simple, repeated movements of your fingers, hands, and wrists.
Static Strength
- Lifting, pushing, pulling, or carrying.
Gross Body Equilibrium
- Keeping your balance or staying upright.
Memorization
- Remembering words, numbers, pictures, or steps.
Explosive Strength
- Jumping, sprinting, or throwing something.
Near Vision
- Seeing details up close.
Spatial Orientation
- Knowing where things are around you.
Visualization
- Imagining how something will look after it is moved around or changed.
Selective Attention
- Paying attention to something without being distracted.
Control Precision
- Quickly changing the controls of a machine, car, truck or boat.
Oral Comprehension
- Listening and understanding what people say.
Inductive Reasoning
- Making general rules or coming up with answers from lots of detailed information.
Sound Localization
- Noticing the direction that a sound came from.
Speech Clarity
- Speaking clearly.
Depth Perception
- Deciding which thing is closer or farther away from you, or deciding how far away it is from you.
Dynamic Strength
- Exercising for a long time without your muscles getting tired.
Oral Expression
- Communicating by speaking.
Written Comprehension
- Reading and understanding what is written.
Deductive Reasoning
- Using rules to solve problems.
Mathematical Reasoning
- Choosing the right type of math to solve a problem.
Gross Body Coordination
- Moving your arms, legs, and mid-section together while your whole body is moving.
Speed of Closure
- Quickly knowing what you are looking at.
Category Flexibility
- Grouping things in different ways.
Information Ordering
- Ordering or arranging things.
Response Orientation
- Quickly deciding if you should move your hand, foot, or other body part.
Rate Control
- Changing when and how fast you move based on how something else is moving.
Multilimb Coordination
- Using your arms and/or legs together while sitting, standing, or lying down.
Far Vision
- Seeing details that are far away.
Dynamic Flexibility
- Quickly and repeatedly bending, stretching, twisting, or reaching out with your body, arms, and/or legs.
Manual Dexterity
- Holding or moving items with your hands.
Fluency of Ideas
- Coming up with lots of ideas.
Originality
- Creating new and original ideas.
Written Expression
- Communicating by writing.

Sales and Marketing
- Knowledge of principles and methods for showing, promoting, and selling products or services. This includes marketing strategy and tactics, product demonstration, sales techniques, and sales control systems.
Food Production
- Knowledge of techniques and equipment for planting, growing, and harvesting food products (both plant and animal) for consumption, including storage/handling techniques.
Design
- Knowledge of design techniques, tools, and principles involved in production of precision technical plans, blueprints, drawings, and models.
Mechanical
- Knowledge of machines and tools, including their designs, uses, repair, and maintenance.
Chemistry
- Knowledge of the chemical composition, structure, and properties of substances and of the chemical processes and transformations that they undergo. This includes uses of chemicals and their interactions, danger signs, production techniques, and disposal methods.
Geography
- Knowledge of principles and methods for describing the features of land, sea, and air masses, including their physical characteristics, locations, interrelationships, and distribution of plant, animal, and human life.
Medicine and Dentistry
- Knowledge of the information and techniques needed to diagnose and treat human injuries, diseases, and deformities. This includes symptoms, treatment alternatives, drug properties and interactions, and preventive health-care measures.
Therapy and Counseling
- Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
Education and Training
- Knowledge of principles and methods for curriculum and training design, teaching and instruction for individuals and groups, and the measurement of training effects.
English Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, and rules of composition and grammar.
Telecommunications
- Knowledge of transmission, broadcasting, switching, control, and operation of telecommunications systems.
Administration and Management
- Knowledge of business and management principles involved in strategic planning, resource allocation, human resources modeling, leadership technique, production methods, and coordination of people and resources.
Administrative
- Knowledge of administrative and office procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and workplace terminology.
Economics and Accounting
- Knowledge of economic and accounting principles and practices, the financial markets, banking, and the analysis and reporting of financial data.
Personnel and Human Resources
- Knowledge of principles and procedures for personnel recruitment, selection, training, compensation and benefits, labor relations and negotiation, and personnel information systems.
Production and Processing
- Knowledge of raw materials, production processes, quality control, costs, and other techniques for maximizing the effective manufacture and distribution of goods.
Computers and Electronics
- Knowledge of circuit boards, processors, chips, electronic equipment, and computer hardware and software, including applications and programming.
Physics
- Knowledge and prediction of physical principles, laws, their interrelationships, and applications to understanding fluid, material, and atmospheric dynamics, and mechanical, electrical, atomic and sub-atomic structures and processes.
Psychology
- Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
Sociology and Anthropology
- Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures, and their history and origins.
Public Safety and Security
- Knowledge of relevant equipment, policies, procedures, and strategies to promote effective local, state, or national security operations for the protection of people, data, property, and institutions.
Law and Government
- Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
Customer and Personal Service
- Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
Engineering and Technology
- Knowledge of the practical application of engineering science and technology. This includes applying principles, techniques, procedures, and equipment to the design and production of various goods and services.
Building and Construction
- Knowledge of materials, methods, and the tools involved in the construction or repair of houses, buildings, or other structures such as highways and roads.
Mathematics
- Knowledge of arithmetic, algebra, geometry, calculus, statistics, and their applications.
Biology
- Knowledge of plant and animal organisms, their tissues, cells, functions, interdependencies, and interactions with each other and the environment.
Foreign Language
- Knowledge of the structure and content of a foreign (non-English) language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition and grammar, and pronunciation.
Fine Arts
- Knowledge of the theory and techniques required to compose, produce, and perform works of music, dance, visual arts, drama, and sculpture.
History and Archeology
- Knowledge of historical events and their causes, indicators, and effects on civilizations and cultures.
Philosophy and Theology
- Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
Communications and Media
- Knowledge of media production, communication, and dissemination techniques and methods. This includes alternative ways to inform and entertain via written, oral, and visual media.
Transportation
- Knowledge of principles and methods for moving people or goods by air, rail, sea, or road, including the relative costs and benefits.

Education

High school diploma or equivalent

Work Experience

No work experience

Training

Apprenticeship

Education and Training Opportunities

Washington Annual Salary

81440/yr

Washington Hourly Wage

39.16/hr

Currently Employed

1,540

Yearly Projected Openings

140

Realistic: People interested in this work like activities that include practical, hands-on problems and solutions. They do well at jobs that need:

Dependability
Attention to Detail

Adjustable widemouth pliers
Air compressors
Blow torch
Caulking guns
Chalk lines
Conduit benders
Desktop computers
Drop cloths
Filtering machinery
Hacksaw
Hazardous material protective apparel
Hole saws
Ladders
Metal cutters
Notebook computers
Pipe bending tools
Pipe or tube cutter
Power buffers
Power drills
Power saws
Protective coveralls
Respirators
Safety glasses
Saws
Scaffolding
Screwdrivers
Sewing machines
Shears
Staple guns
Tape measures
Thickness measuring devices
Tool template sets
Trowels
Utility knives
Wire lug crimping tool

Analytical or scientific software
Data base user interface and query software
Enterprise resource planning ERP software
Project management software

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Statewide occupation search

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Insulation Workers, Mechanical

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