Nordhausen - Which welder can claim to have ever welded a complete suit of armor? Schachtbau apprentice Jonas Leon Henning can do just that! The budding construction mechanic is currently in the third year of his apprenticeship and competed with his colleagues Felix Liesegang, Falk Schlothauer and Rouven Holzapfel in this year's Joining Design Competition.

After the national "Jugend schweißt" competition planned for September 2021 had to be cancelled due to a pandemic, the organizer, the DVS regional association of Thuringia with its three district associations Erfurt, East Thuringia and South Thuringia, was pleased about the new edition of the competition this year. This was not held as a regional competition in the Erfurt welding arena as before, but directly in the participating training companies. In the joining technology design competition, young people aged 16 to 23 can get creative with joining technology and implement their ideas in their own training workshop. They are free to choose their own joining process: The participants can decide for themselves whether they want to weld, solder or glue. The young people are also free to choose the material they use. Only the motto is fixed and this year it was "Comic figures".  The welded, soldered or glued figures were not allowed to exceed the maximum dimensions of 80 x 80 x 80 cm and a maximum weight of 30 kg.

Since September, the four budding construction mechanics have been working together with training supervisor Kai Krauthöfer to implement their creative ideas, which are sometimes very detail-oriented. On October 14, the knight, together with SpongeBob SquarePants, Bender and Bart Simpson, made their way to the jury of the Thuringian Chamber of Crafts. On October 15, the jury awarded prizes to the best soldered, glued or welded comic figures from a total of ten submitted models. Rouven Holzapfel came out on top in the race of the joining technology talents with his figure "Bender" and could be pleased about the 2nd place.

However, all the works earned respect and show the skills of their creators.