The competition was by invitation only and involved several levels of elimination before culminating in a final weld-off that took place in Huntsville, Alabama. That win propelled him to the SkillsUSA National competition, where he placed 11th, qualifying him to compete in the USA Weld Trials β the competition used to select the welding contestant representing the United States at the international WorldSkills competition to be held in Shanghai in October After receiving the invitation to compete at the USA Trials, Packer actively practiced, competed and did everything he could to prepare, including spending close to 75 hours a week in the shop welding and mastering the four main processes of welding.
All his preparation was in addition to keeping up with schooling and family responsibilities. Since the USA Trials are at the same competitive level as an Olympic event, the same level of dedication and training was required to remain in the running. Packer's preparation paid off, carrying him through elimination rounds that reduced 50 contestants down to the top four.
His competitors included former gold medalists from the and SkillsUSA national competitions β none of whom made it to the final round. Not only has USU Eastern spent a great deal of program funds on material, but the instructors have put in their personal time to make sure my practice time is as efficient as possible. I have come to know all three of the instructors better than anyone in the program, and there is not a group of men I respect more. The Final Weld-Off consisted of four different modules with 18 hours allotted to finish the modules over a three-day period.
The first module tested five separate test coupons: two open-root V-grooves one 10 mm and one 16 mm , two fillet-weld break tests, and one open-root 6G 4-inch schedule 80 pipe coupon. All five then underwent visual inspection before being destructively tested. The fillet welds were broken, and the v-grooves and pipe were cut into sections for bend testing.
For the first module, Packer used the shielded metal arc welding, gas tungsten arc welding, and flux-cored arc welding processes, but any of the four welding processes including gas metal arc welding, gas tungsten arc welding, flux-cored arc welding, or shielded metal arc welding can be randomly selected for any of the five test coupons, making it so a contestant has to be prepared to weld any of the five tests with all four processes at any given time.
