conveyor operator and tender responsibilities are to inform supervisors of equipment malfunctions that need to be addressed; clean, sterilize, and maintain equipment, machinery, and work stations, using hand tools, shovels, brooms, chemicals, hoses, and lubricants; manipulate controls, levers, and valves to start pumps, auxiliary equipment, or conveyors, and to adjust equipment positions, speeds, timing, and material flows; observe conveyor operations and monitor lights, dials, and gauges to maintain specified operating levels and to detect equipment malfunctions; weigh or measure materials and products, using scales or other measuring instruments, or read scales on conveyors that continually weigh products, to verify specified tonnages and prevent overloads; contact workers in work stations or other departments to request movement of materials, products, or machinery, or to notify them of incoming shipments and their estimated delivery times; stop equipment or machinery and clear jams, using poles, bars, and hand tools, or remove damaged materials from conveyors; position deflector bars, gates, chutes, or spouts to divert flow of materials from one conveyor onto another conveyor;

read production and delivery schedules, and confer with supervisors, to determine sorting and transfer procedures, arrangement of packages on pallets, and destinations of loaded pallets; record production data such as weights, types, quantities, and storage locations of materials, as well as equipment performance problems and downtime; operate elevator systems in conjunction with conveyor systems; repair or replace equipment components or parts such as blades, rolls, and pumps; load, unload, or adjust materials or products on conveyors by hand, by using lifts, hoists, and scoops, or by opening gates, chutes, or hoppers; collect samples of materials or products, checking them to ensure conformance to specifications or sending them to laboratories for analysis;

measure dimensions of bundles, using rulers, and cut battens to required sizes, using power saws; move, assemble, and connect hoses or nozzles to material hoppers, storage tanks, conveyor sections or chutes, and pumps; distribute materials, supplies, and equipment to work stations, using lifts and trucks; thread strapping through strapping tools and secure battens with strapping to form protective pallets around extrusions; join sections of conveyor frames at temporary working areas, and connect power units; affix identifying information to materials or products, using hand tools; observe packages moving along conveyors in order to identify packages and to detect defective packaging; press console buttons to deflect packages to predetermined accumulators or reject lines; operate consoles to control automatic palletizing equipment.