Army Research Laboratory, Adelphi Site Contracts Branch, Attn: AMSRL-CS-PR-PA, 2800 Powder Mill Road, Adelphi, Maryland 20783-1197

A -- MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY (MANTECH) PROGRAM SOL DAAL01-98-R-9184 DUE 051898 POC Dolores Cabrera, Contract Specialist, (301) 394-3693 Sources are sought to provide scientific, engineering and/or technical support to the U.S. Army Research Laboratory Materials Directorate (ARL/MD) for studies, technology demonstrators, development of technical documentation packages, and prototype development in such potential areas of interest as in the following Basic Contract Statement of Work (SOW): "C.1 Objective. The Army Research Laboratory (ARL) Process and Properties Branch (PPB), Weapons and Materials Research Directorate, is the Commodity Area Manager for the Army Manufacturing Technology (MANTECH) Program in "Material and Support Systems" (M&SS) and Manufacturing Technology Objective (MTO) Manager for "Knowledge and Process Tools for Manufacturing of Affordable Composite Structures". C.1.1 The "Material and Support Systems" (M&SS) Program focuses on manufacturing technology projects that not only have a very specific or unique manufacturing technology development requirements for the Army but which also have generic capabilities. Technology areas addressed include: enhancing equipment designs, developing new and advanced testing methods and inspection procedures, remanufacturing and reclamation (RE&R), advanced welding technology, sustainment technologies, and sensors in manufacturing. C.1.2 "Intelligent Processing of Materials" focuses on establishing and demonstrating advanced intelligent processing tools and equipment to significantly reduce the cost and time to manufacture Army components. One area of emphasis will be large scale composite components for munitions and air/ground vehicles. C.1.3 In addition the PPB performs, as advisor to Army Materiel Command Headquarters, a variety of program planning and information analysis/dissemination activities for the Army MANTECH Program. Such activities shall also include providing scientific, engineering, administrative and/or technical support for timely analysis/dissemination of information on Army MANTECH areas of interest. C.2 Requirements. The contractor shall, as specified in individual task orders, provide scientific, engineering and/or technical support to the U.S. Army Research Laboratory (Weapons and Materials Research Directorate) for studies, technology demonstrators, development of technical documentation packages, and prototype development in such potential areas of interest as: C.2.1 M&SS. (a) Remanufacturing and Reclamation (RE&R), which deals with a wide array of equipment repair, rebuild and modernization efforts within the organic industrial base; b) Advanced welding technology (e.g. friction stir welding of armor for ground vehicles, high deposition welding of low cost titanium for tank ballistic turret, and real-time adaptive control (RTAC) of automated gas tungsten arc welding (GTAW) for complex shaped parts); (c) Sustainment technologies (e.g. artificial intelligence and neural networks based automated critical defects detection technology, reverse engineering of electronic components, advanced nondestructive evaluation technique of laser based non-contact testing for high density electronic components, agile manufacturing of critical parts in the field, and rapid adhesive bonding for assembly and repair using inductive heating); (d) advanced sensors in manufacturing for process control and health monitoring; and (e) low cost and rapid manufacturing of nanomaterials. C.2.2 "Intelligent Processing of Materials". (a) developing advanced structural composite material processes/tools, to significantly reduce the cost and time to manufacture of large scale composite components for munitions and air/ground vehicles. (Note: Such processes shall include robotic/tow tape placement, resin transfer molding, resin infusion molding, electron beam/x-ray curing, preform stitching, weaving, and braiding, and out of autoclave curing (combined with sensor based process feedback control and "virtual manufacturing" simulations.); (b) developing rapid prototyping process tools; (c) advanced nondestructive evaluation and smart systems technologies; and (d) advanced integrated manufacturing systems to develop technologies which advance the application of concurrent engineering, flexible manufacturing, and enterprise integration in the DoD/industrial base. C.2.3 MANTECH Program Planning Activities -- (a) Preparation of MANTECH Business Plan, (b) Preparation of MANTECH strategic Plan, (c) AMC Headquarters required reports, (d) Evaluation of past performance of MANTECH projects, (e) Providing strategic vision for MANTECH program, (f) High priority MANTECH program assignments, (g) MANTECH Implementation planning and evaluation, and (h) Analysis/dissemination of MANTECH information (e.g. support for the annual Defense Manufacturing Conference). C.3 System Fabrication Support. The contractor may be required to provide support in the area of hardware integration, fabrication and test of systems required for the project. Specification of system hardware will be provided to the contractor as required within individual task orders. C.4 Documentation. As specified in individual task orders in DDForm 1423, the contractor shall provide support to document prototype systems to include developmental design drawings and /associated lists, quarterly progress/financial reports, system software, interim/final technical reports. The contractor shall also document and deliver presentation materials, still photo coverage, and conference minutes/proceedings. C.5 Formal Reviews. The contractor shall conduct formal reviews and audits as required by the Government." Interested parties are requested to submit qualification statements demonstrating the following: (1) convincing documentary evidence of prior experience in support of C.2 above, (2) demonstration of understanding of the nature and scope of work within the parameters of C.1, (3) statements that specify how the tasks will be performed, and (4) description of facilities and financial ability to perform the contract (NTE $9,995,000 over a five-year period). Representative tasks, awarded under the previous contract, are available on the U S Army Research Laboratory Procurement Division Homepage on the World Wide Web to further the understanding interested parties need to prepare qualification statements. The ARL homepage address is http://w3.arl.mil/contracts, Contracting Opportunities. Interested parties shall send qualification statements as described in Note 25 to the above address and they must be received no later than 15 days from publication date of this notice in order to be considered. This qualification statement should not be standard marketing brochures, but must include specific, tailored evidence of capabilities to perform in the above areas and a positive statement of eligibility in one of the potential set-aside areas. This proposed procurement is being considered for 100% set-aside for 8(a) competitive or small business (SB) in that order. If adequate interest is not received from 8(a) concerns, this procurement will be considered for small business. If adequate interest is not received from SB concerns, this procurement will be conducted on an unrestricted basis without further notice. All responsible sources may submit a qualification package that will be considered by the Agency. No telephone requests will be honored. See Numbered Note: 25. (0118)

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