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

As the name suggests, the original function of a millwright was the construction of flour mills, sawmills, and paper mills powered by water or wind, built mostly of wood with a limited number of metal parts. These types of structures originated long ago; therefore, millwrighting could be considered, arguably, as one of the oldest engineering trades and the forerunner of the modern mechanical engineer.

In modern usage, a millwright is engaged with the erection of machinery. This includes such tasks as leveling, aligning and installing machinery on foundations or base plates and setting, leveling and aligning electric motors or other power sources.

The term millwright (also known as industrial mechanic) is mainly used in the United States.

Source: Wikipedia

• Capability to use hoisting/moving equipment
• Thorough understanding of load-bearing capabilities
• Aptitude to interpret blueprints, schematics and technical instructions
• Ability to perform proper rigging
• General knowledge on how to dismantle / overhaul machinery and equipment
• Capacity to use lathes, milling machines and grinders for customized parts or repairs
• Move, assemble and install machinery and equipment
• Proficiency to perform all duties of general laborer, pipefitter, carpenter, electrician, and welder
• Good understanding of fluid mechanics (valves, cylinders, pumps and compressors)
• Competence to work within precise limits or standards of accuracy (0.005 of an inch)
• Ability to problem solve, use logical step-by-step procedures, and make on the spot decisions

Starting with pre-project conferences to outline the scope of work, manpower needs, and scheduling issues, we keep lines of communication open throughout the life of the project. We also work to complete projects without production missing a beat by adjusting work schedules around peak production hours and scheduling shifts during non-typical work hours.

Our goal is developing a safety partnership with owners to protect our greatest asset and the owner’s investment.

Our objective is to remove job site injuries, work stoppages and higher project costs due to illness or accidents, worker disabilities and workers’ compensation claims, and deaths.

Standards on job site safety include:

• Instilling a core value of safe work by everyone, via continuous training
• Teaming with general contractors, project management and owners on a project’s safety program to identify, assess, monitor, manage and eliminate risks
• Consistent safety-related communications among all stakeholders prior to and throughout the project’s life cycle
• Meeting and exceeding the highest level of OSHA and other industry safety standards
• Reinforcing zero-tolerance from our millwrights regarding safety infractions and near-misses
• Ensuring that the level of safety training meets and exceeds the level of inherent risk factors

Millwrights must be physically able to:

• Coordinate eye-hand movements
• Use hands and fingers fully; reach for, manipulate, and feel objects; stoop, kneel, crouch, and/or crawl
• Climb and maintain body balance on ladders, scaffolding, or high structures; and see and hear well
• Lift and carry objects weighing up to 100 pounds
• Stoop, lay, bend or squat for long periods of time

Millwrights, on a typical job, will read diagrams and schematic drawings and service manuals to determine work procedures, operate rigging equipment to pick and place machinery and parts, fit bearings, align gears and shafts, attach and align motors, connect coupling and belts, perform predictive and operation maintenance using laser alignment tooling, vibrational analysis and destructive/non-destructive testing, service and repair hydraulic and pneumatic equipment, and may do some tack welding, fabrication of machinery and equipment.