NATICK ACQUISITION CENTER, US ARMY NATICK RD&E CENTER, NATICK MA 01760-5011

83 -- LOW COST PARACHUTE MATERIALS SOL DAAK60-CBD5-0010 DUE 022095 POC ERWIN WUESTER, PROJECT OFFICER, (508) 651-4257, FAX 651-5000 The U.S. Army Natick Research, Development and Engineering center is seeking sources of supply for suitable materials that can be used for fabrication of low cost cargo parachutes. The parachutes will be used to deliver supplies for humanitarian relief, and for other contingency missions. The materials may consist of woven or nonwoven cloths or plastic films and they may be homogeneous in nature or a composite of several materials such as laminates, with or without fillers. The materials should be easy to fabricate into parachutes by different methods such as sewing, gluing, taping, ultrasonics or heat sealing, showing little change when subjected to aging, and possessing wet strength comparable to their dry strength. The materials should be pliable in order to be packed in a manner similar to standard parachutes. The materials should be lightweight (target weight 3.5 ounce/square yard or less), and have low bulk to prevent large parachute packs. The materials shall be non strategic, readily available in the United States, and shall be low cost in comparison to the nylon parachute cloth currently being used. An 8 X 11 sample of material may be enclosed with a written profile of the physical characteristics and costs per square yard.(0037)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0456 19950207\83-0003.SOL)