EWC’s Tipsword ranks Top 3 in welding competition

One of three top welders to advance from the American Welding Society/SkillsUSA U.S. Invitational Weld Trials was Tanner Tipsword from Eastern Wyoming College.  Tipsword is from Cheyenne, Wyoming.

The top three welders now get to compete against one another at the Daytona 500 Speedweek for a spot on the SkillsUSA World Team.  The World Skills Competition will take place in Leipzig, Germany in July 2013.  At the world event, students will compete against more than 1,000 students representing 52 countries/regions from around the world.

But first, Tipsword will compete at the Daytona International Speedway.  The competition will last four days and will test multiple welding processes.  The welding requirements are so precise that a number of the welds will require x-ray reviews and hydrostatic pressure tests up to 1,000 pounds per square inch in order to verify the integrity and quality of the welds.  This competition will be held in February.  One of the many prizes includes a $40,000 scholarship from the American Welding Society Foundation.

“I really have to commend Tanner for the amount of time and effort he has put into the preparation for each of these competitions,” shared EWC welding instructor and SkillsUSA advisor Stan Nicolls.  “It truly has been a marathon for him over the past 3-4 months.  It has been a great experience to work with him.”

For more information about the EWC welding program, contact the college at 307.532.8275.  For more information about the SkillsUSA world competition visit http://www.worldskills.org.