Engineering

• A metallurgical technician, also known as a materials science technician, creates materials used in certain mechanical and electrical components by extracting metals such as iron, steel and copper from natural ores. These metals become treated and processed by special machinery to create an end product.
  
  

Manufacturing

• Most metallurgical technicians work in the steel and iron industry, creating products such as wires, beams and metal sheeting to be used to create other products. Some technicians may work for companies to develop products that use this metal. A metallurgical technician may work in all phases of operation, from design to development to end production.
  
  

Alloy Research

• With the help of engineers and scientists, metallurgical technicians research new processes concerning alloys such as steel and brass. By testing these alloys with metal processing equipment, the technician learns how the alloys withstand heating and welding techniques to become crafted into products. The metallurgical technician uses various testing equipment, such as spectrographs, microscopes and x-ray machines.
  
  

Production Supervision

• Metallurgical technicians who work in the production department oversee crews of workers who extract metals from ores. These crews operate large furnaces, super-heating the ores to remove the metal alloy from other materials. The metallurgical technician also performs quality control testing on products to make sure the alloys meet or exceed quality standards.
  
  

Employment

• A person interested in a metallurgical technician career must obtain a bachelor's degree in engineering. Additional courses of study include mathematics or a natural science. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, or BLS, reports that metallurgical technicians held about 24,000 jobs nationwide in 2008, mainly in manufacturing industries. Employment growth, driven largely by biotechnology and nanotechnology, is expected to increase by 9 percent in scientific and technical services, with entry-level earnings of about $57,349. Depending on the type of industry and the metallurgical technician's education, the BLS projects income for the next 10 years to rise to an average of $81,820, with an average of $124,470 in some industry sectors.