AWS Presents Welding Award to Times Square New Year’s Eve Ball

The American Welding Society (Miami, FL), the world’s largest organization dedicated to advancing the science, technology and application of welding, recently presented an Extraordinary Welding Award to the Times Square New Year’s Eve ball during a special ceremony.

The award, which is voted on by AWS’s Past-Presidents Committee, celebrates technical design or outstanding development in welded fabrication, recognizing welding excellence in construction, fabrication and manufacturing, and designating those welded structures whose purpose has importance in, or influence on, history.

The New York City icon is a welding and engineering marvel. Created by Hudson Scenic Studios, the ball is a geodesic sphere, 12 ft in diameter and weighing 11,875 lbs. The Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW) process was utilized in its aluminum frame construction.

Dean Wilson, president of the American Welding Society, presented the award during the annual ceremony to re-light and raise the ball back to its perch above One Times Square. The ball will remain there for all Times Square visitors to see until it drops back down to ring in 2015.

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