GAMAT – August 2022

Only the project lead must be a member of America Makes.

Yes, teams may submit more than one Project Proposal.

Questions should be emailed to projectcall@americamakes.us. Questions will be posted to the America Makes website according to the schedule. Questions asked AFTER the scheduled Q&A session will NOT be addressed.

Yes, but only if they are members. The approval process for foreign-owned entities can take up to 4 weeks to complete, so non-members would not have sufficient time to apply and be approved prior to this deadline.

Federal dollars cannot be spent outside of the United States. It is the Lead / team’s responsibility to ensure compliance with all applicable export control laws and regulations.

Yes. The proposals will only be reviewed by the evaluation team and each team member signs a confidentiality agreement.

The owning organization should list anything that they are leveraging that is not going to be made available to the membership at the completion of the project. This could be a patent number or a description of the background IP that is being leveraged.

The IP is owned by the organization that developed the IP, however that IP is subject to the rules outlined in the membership agreement.

From the RFP:

-The degree to which the proposal demonstrates awareness of unique attributes of metal AM and L-DED of Ti-6Al-4V and how these efforts will deliver quantitative understanding of these attributes through systematic assessment of some or all of the following:
(Heat treatment sensitivity, Variability in feedstock material, Manufacturing related anomalies, Machine to machine variability, Manufacturing fabrication location to location variability, Process revisions )
-The degree to which the project plans to obtain or leverage various team member skills or resources, and the credibility of that plan to ensuring on-time production of the deliverables
-The degree to which the proposal clearly explains why funding is required, including a discussion of other sources that have been obtained or are being pursued and how this funding will provide specific benefits to the proposal project team, USAF, and America Makes members
-Project Strategic Relevance Appendix: The Project Strategic Relevance Appendix should contain explicit examples of how the proposed work is integral to the vested interests of the proposing team, as well as how the successful outcomes of the proposed project will integrate into potential follow-on efforts.  There is no guarantee of follow-on funding.  Details should be included that highlight follow-on approach, milestones, deliverables, approximate timeline to achieve TRL 7, and associated relevant KPPs.

From the RFP:

NCDMM and AFRL are seeking responses that outline an approach to execute an AM process-specific effort resulting in a set of publicly available, statistically substantiated, bulk metallic material property data with a corresponding material and process specification.  The overall objective is to achieve a statistically based design allowable consistent with B-basis equivalence (90% exceedance /95% confidence) and A-basis equivalence (99% exceedance /95% confidence) and establish a best practice that is publicly available for Laser Powder Feed Directed Energy Deposition (L-DED) of Ti-6Al-4V.

From the RFP:

NCDMM and AFRL are seeking responses that outline an approach to execute an AM process-specific effort resulting in a set of publicly available, statistically substantiated, bulk metallic material property data with a corresponding material and process specification.  The overall objective is to achieve a statistically based design allowable consistent with B-basis equivalence (90% exceedance /95% confidence) and A-basis equivalence (99% exceedance /95% confidence) and establish a best practice that is publicly available for Laser Powder Feed Directed Energy Deposition (L-DED) of Ti-6Al-4V.

From RFP:

The DoD has existing work on creating design allowables that may be made available for the purposes of this project, including prior work in L-DED at America Makes.

The end use application which as stated in the RFP is to outline an approach to execute an AM process-specific effort resulting in a set of publicly available, statistically substantiated, bulk metallic material property data with a corresponding material and process specification.  The overall objective is to achieve a statistically based design allowable consistent with B-basis equivalence (90% exceedance /95% confidence) and A-basis equivalence (99% exceedance /95% confidence) and establish a best practice that is publicly available for Laser Powder Feed Directed Energy Deposition (L-DED) of Ti-6Al-4V.

IF you feel that the approaches in your question would add value to your approach please include it or take advantage of the Project Strategic relevance appendix.

From the RFP:

-The degree to which the proposal clearly explains why funding is required, including a discussion of other sources that have been obtained or are being pursued and how this funding will provide specific benefits to the proposal project team, USAF, and America Makes members
-The Project Strategic Relevance Appendix should contain explicit examples of how the proposed work is integral to the vested interests of the proposing team, as well as how the successful outcomes of the proposed project will integrate into potential follow-on efforts.  There is no guarantee of follow-on funding.  Details should be included that highlight follow-on approach, milestones, deliverables, approximate timeline to achieve TRL 7, and associated relevant KPPs.

The end use application which as stated in the RFP is to outline an approach to execute an AM process-specific effort resulting in a set of publicly available, statistically substantiated, bulk metallic material property data with a corresponding material and process specification.  The overall objective is to achieve a statistically based design allowable consistent with B-basis equivalence (90% exceedance /95% confidence) and A-basis equivalence (99% exceedance /95% confidence) and establish a best practice that is publicly available for Laser Powder Feed Directed Energy Deposition (L-DED) of Ti-6Al-4V.

If you feel that the approaches in your question would add value to your approach please include it or take advantage of the Project Strategic relevance appendix.

From the RFP:

-The degree to which the proposal clearly explains why funding is required, including a discussion of other sources that have been obtained or are being pursued and how this funding will provide specific benefits to the proposal project team, USAF, and America Makes members
-The Project Strategic Relevance Appendix should contain explicit examples of how the proposed work is integral to the vested interests of the proposing team, as well as how the successful outcomes of the proposed project will integrate into potential follow-on efforts.  There is no guarantee of follow-on funding.  Details should be included that highlight follow-on approach, milestones, deliverables, approximate timeline to achieve TRL 7, and associated relevant KPPs.

From the RFP:

An execution plan for testing, analyzing, and delivering B-basis equivalent (90% exceedance /95% confidence) statistically based material allowables using virgin powder via a mature laser powder-based DED process

From RFP:

-Approaches in response to the project call shall Identify publicly available material and process specifications (AMS 7010A for example) for L-DED Ti-6Al-4V, or ones that can be publicly released to use for the project.
-Identify publicly available material and process specifications (AMS 7010A for example) for L-DED Ti-6Al-4V, or ones that can be released for use in the project.
-Responses should provide a concise statement of the problems and identify a range of industrially, commercially relevant and Air Force needs being addressed.

Regretfully no, all questions must be submitted by the scheduled date of August 4, 2022

Responses should provide a concise statement of the problems and identify a range of industrially, commercially relevant and Air Force needs being addressed.

Responses to the RFP shall deliver a summary of potential statistical analysis methods of interest that are explored along with the generation of statistically based allowables.

The team will investigate how the proposed approach aligns with MMPDS best practices.

Responses to the GAMAT project are encouraged to consider alignment to MMPDS

Responses to the GAMAT project call are encouraged to consider alignment of of the teams proposed approach with the MMPDS best practices for coupons and test methods. Approaches should include a comparison of multiple statistical methods for generating statistically based allowables.

From the RFP Teams are expected to develop an approach which is reviewed in concert with the government technical team and then executed. In order to obtain a B basis equivalent statistically based material allowable. The outcomes of which shall be reviewed by the governemnt technical team.
-Approaches in response to the project call shall Identify publicly available material and process specifications (AMS 7010A for example) for L-DED Ti-6Al-4V, or ones that can be publicly released to use for the project.

Teams are encouraged to Investigate alignment of their approach with the MMPDS best practices for coupons and test methods.

-Approaches in response to the project call shall Identify publicly available material and process specifications (AMS 7010A for example) for L-DED Ti-6Al-4V, or ones that can be publicly released to use for the project.