USU Eastern students traveled to a welding competition on the Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) campus to vie for the top spot on March 29.
Jessen Welch was successful in winning the SkillsUSA welding competition for the state of Utah. Welch welded with GMAW, FCAW, SMAW and GTAW, creating small projects with each process.
He was also instructed to make cuts with an oxy-fuel torch. The USU Eastern fabrication team took first place and also received a gold medal in t-shirt design.
The welding fabrication team also represented well. The team was comprised of three students: Tosh Davis, Ben Warnick and Nate Stagg. For this year, their competition theme was a tig welding table. Four hours were given to the students to complete the project.
The students were given the theme, as well as a bill of materials required, beforehand. The exact design, however, was unknown to all competitors until the competition began.
Each team is required to bring their own materials and the trio did about four practice builds before the actual competition in preparation. A toolbox full of specified tools allowed is also brought along for the journey by the teams.
Once the four hours are over, the projects are then graded on criteria such as fabrications, teamwork, quality of welds and safety.
The team of Warnick, Stagg and Davis were awarded first place at state in the college division and are now beginning preparation for the national competition that takes place in June, hosted in Kentucky.
