Victor Technologies has announced the results of its 2012 student cutting and welding contest “Innovation to Shape the World.” The national competition provides three schools with prize packages valued at more than $4,000, as well as cash awards for the winning contestants.
The Santa Fe College Applied Welding Technologies Program had students Zachary Adams, Jamey Moore, Matt Taylor, Tommy Taylor and Syson O’Brien Hall competing in the team portion of the contest. Welding professor JT Mahoney served as the team’s advisor. The team, named Welding to Fabrication (WTF), established its motto as “for the machine, by the machine.”
The team’s project, “The Mighty D.U.C. (Dynamic Utility Converter),” is an ancient utility vehicle converted into the ultimate mobile welding cart using mostly scrap found on a farm. Tom Wermert, one of the contest judges and senior brand manager for the Fabricator 211i 3-in-1 welder that will be awarded to the SF welding lab, commented, “Team winners, such as the one from Santa Fe College, demonstrated great imagination in turning what was often discarded scrap metal into works of function and beauty. In all cases, the project components only cost a few dollars, but the vision shown by the team was priceless.”
“Jamey came across this contest over the summer and asked me if he could head it up,” stated Mahoney. “He is an excellent facilitator and he and the team did an outstanding job as is demonstrated by the contest results. The team had a wide range of student skill level and participation. Brien Hall is graduating from the program in December. Jamey, Matt and Zach are all U.S. military veterans and have had a powerful, positive impact on their classmates. Tommy brought the youthful enthusiasm to the team. I thoroughly enjoyed watching these people carry the project from paper to reality over two short months outside of their scheduled class time and still getting their fall term course work completed.”
Members of the winning team each were awarded a $500 cash prize for their welding project. All schools associated with the winners also won a cutting, welding and gas control package valued at $4,000. Products in the package included a Victor® Journeyman Welding & Cutting Outfit, a Victor® Thermal Dynamics® CUTMASTER 42 Air Plasma Cutting Outfit, a Fabricator® 211i 3-in-1 Stick-MIG-TIG Welding Machine Kit and two Tweco® 4-sensor auto-darkening welding helmets.
Mahoney commented, “We may be taking a closer look at these industry contests in the future. I don’t see any other form of competition that has this level of reward when you look at the dollar value of the prizes which will be presented to our college. That’s a pretty good bang for the buck.”
Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, Victor Technologies provides superior solutions for cutting, welding and gas control equipment under brand names that include Victor®, Victor®Thermal Dynamics®, Victor®Arcair®, Victor®TurboTorch®, Tweco®, Thermal Arc®, Stoody®, Firepower® and Cigweld®. For more information about Victor Technologies and its products and services, visit the company’s website at www.victortechnologies.com.
