Los Alamos National Laboratory, Mail Stop C331, P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, NM 87545

A -- QUALIFICATION/CERTIFICATION FOR SMALL LOT BUILDS SOL CIT-98-101 POC For Technical Information, Contact Mr. Bill Baker, Los Alamos National Laboratory, MS G770, E-mail: bdbaker@lanl.gov. For Agreement Information, Contact Linda Rowton, Civilian and Industrial Technologies Program Office, Los Alamos National Laboratory, MS C334, TEL: (505) 665-3322, FAX, (505) 665-0154, or E-mail: Irowton@lanl.gov. The University of California, which operates the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) under contract to the Department of Energy, solicits interest from companies wishing to collaborate, develop technology and methodology related to qualification and certification of small lot builds of materials and components utilized in the nuclear weapons programs. The problem of certification spans many disciplines including design, design engineering, materials and materials processing, fabrication and assembly. A single subset will not adequately address the issues, therefore, a team approach, with all appropriate interests must be assembled in order to effectively deal with all the interrelationships. The Los Alamos portion of the work will be to observe current industrial efforts in this area and formulate and refine these efforts into a workable plan that can be implemented into the Weapons Program. Los Alamos has an extensive background in material science, engineering, process modeling, manufacturing, and statistic analysis evaluation that will be leveraged to support the program. Correspondingly, the candidate company should have a well-developed background in certification of critical components and extensive quality programs integrating quality acceptance with manufacturing. Candidates must also have a background of working with oversight agencies (preferably federal) that require QC-1 criteria in product acceptance. Preferable, selected industries must have many of the same problems with qualification and certification that face the nuclear weapons program. It is expected that this teaming of basic and applied skills will be an effective and valuable asset for the industrial partner as well as DOE weapons develop this technology for use by the DOE and the commercial market. All organizations interested in collaborating with LANL to work toward co-developing the Technology must provide proof, in a written letter of interest, that they satisfy the following minimum criteria: Interested parties must possess, or have access to, existing capabilities in research, development, marketing and support services in the domestic marketplace, preferably related to this technology. Such organizations with expertise in the above-mentioned areas must respond with a statement of interest that demonstrates the organization's solid engineering, testing, technical expertise, and operational support capabilities, and motivation for participating in this program. This opportunity is not a procurement solicitation. Any interested organization selected as a partner will be expected to work under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) or a Funds-In Agreement (FIA) to continue the development of this technology and adaptation to other applications. All letters of interest must be received by no later than 10 working days from the date of this notice. The letter of interest must contain all of the above requested information or the submitting organization will not be considered as a possible candidate for partnership. (0021)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0020 19980123\A-0020.SOL)