Improving Industrial Base Manufacturing Processes (formerly Material Availability)
Abstract
The Subsistence Network (SUBNET) program conducted research, development, test and evaluation on short-term projects to improve the subsistence supply chain. The SUBNET program worked with community partners (military services, industry, and academia) to leverage the latest technologies and innovations for the R&D projects. SUBNET researched and executed projects in FY 2021 regarding modernization and readiness analysis of a joint food management system; subsistence readiness analysis and innovation assessment of the supply chain; pre and polyfluoroalkyl (PFAS) in meals, ready-to-eat packing materials; develop and test laminate structures in hot sauce pouches for MREs; and blockchain application for outside of continental U.S. subsistence prime vendor supply chain. The program also continued to work with small business innovation research (SBIR) subsistence topics such as the use of cold plasma fog mist to disinfect personnel protective equipment and cold plasma technology to extend the shelf life of fresh fruits and vegetables and collaborate with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on future projects for synergy and as a potential transition partner. The Casting program continued to monitor awarded projects that research, develop and deploy innovative and technical solutions to ensure a viable and competitive domestic industrial base. The program works to maintain its alignment with the DLA Strategic plan and U.S. Casting Industry Roadmap. Our projects focus on improving manufacturing processes such as die coatings and integrated sensors and technologies that include simulation modeling and 3D printing of casting molds and cores, and workforce development to secure a sustainable supply chain for DLA and the DOD. These efforts included webinars for both DLA employees and the casting industry, on-site and virtual seminars or DLA/DOD employees, resources that assisted suppliers and DLA with questions regarding castings, and directed active DLA solicitations containing castings to capable suppliers that increased visibility and reduced no-bid situations. The Forging program monitored projects awarded under the Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) offered in FY 2020 and awarded in September 2020. There was a total of three new contracts awarded which include seven new projects, The projects included a focus on exploring alternative forging manufacturing methods, materials to reduce production lead-time and costs, modeling and simulation software improvements and enhancements and improvements to post processing methods. We continued to see positive results from these projects, Ceramic Coatings for Forging Furnaces reported a 42 percent reduction in Natural Gas usage and a 64 percent reduction in recovery time for a forging furnace which was coated as part of this project. In FY 2020 the DLA Forging R&D funding baseline and out years were reduced by approximately 25 percent, which reduced the number of projects awarded in FY 2020. These projects will be in alignment with the needs of the DOD and DLA aimed and supporting and fulfilling the needs of the warfighter, while working to maintain its alignment with the DLA Strategic plan and U.S. Casting Industry Roadmap A few projects successfully finished and continue working on implementing the new technologies, such as the mobile Intensive Quench project. As well as the Innovations in Repair of Forging dies project that finished and will continue working with their industry partners to transition this technology to the forging industry. The Battery Network (BATTNET) program continued projects for improving the production readiness and technology transition for soldier and system batteries within the DLA supply chain. The program prototyped and tested several versions of Bipolar lead-acid technology in major system formats to reduce battery cost and weight, improve battery energy and power, and extend battery shelf life and operational life – a new effort was launched for aviation batteries. The program continued a major project for improving the capacity and capabilities of lithium anode production for current non-rechargeable batteries and future rechargeable batteries. The program continued managing projects for transitioning high value solid-state electrolyte, as well as UV-curable polymer, technology into key soldier and system lithium-ion batteries. The program continued to initiate and manage several SBIR projects in advanced lithium-ion battery manufacturing, recycling, and rapid materials synthesis. The Additive Manufacturing (AM) program, using market research, requests for information/proposals, Broad Agency Announcements (BAA), DLA R&D funded analysis of alternatives for the best cognitive computing solutions to integrate information from several logistics, engineering, legal, and supplier data sources into an efficient AM decisional framework. The AM Initial General Acceptance (AMIGA) tool was developed to assist DLA procurement and engineering personnel in making a AM procurement decisions by automating the initial assessment of DLA-managed items, particularly hard-to-procure items, based on item characteristics, business, logistics, and additive manufacturing technology criteria. While AMIGA demonstrated a useful initial search capability for potential AM procurement candidates, the DLA Technical & Quality Assurance Division, after thorough consideration, was not able to approve full transition into operations at this time due to certain existing constraints and emerging risks, such as funding availability and integration with major DLA IT systems as modernization initiatives are being developed. Nevertheless, these analytics efforts helped to identify unseen patterns in the manufacturing data that will help shape an efficient AM distributive manufacturing ecosystem. The Additive Manufacturing (AM) program also financed collaborative technical efforts from the military departments, industry, and academic institutions that enhance the customer engagement with the AM product management workflows. Overall DLA Enterprise AM efforts to identify the best AM applications to achieve precise robustness-repeatability-reproducibility of part fabrication using an AM technical data package in a distributed manufacturing setting were impacted by the reduction of approximately $0.943 million resulting from overall ManTech $3.020 million in directed reductions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Accomplishment
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 2023
- Source ID
- 17b605c3f40ee341835fc1b69ed4272c