Source Approval of the FOAM Pod and FOAM Pod Produced Parts

This alternate source of supply proposal is looking beyond a single part and targeting approval of a mobile manufacturing facility as an alternate supply source for potentially 1000s of parts. Dynovas, in partnership with ExOne, is maturing the Field Optimized Advanced Manufacturing (FOAM) Pod under a parallel DLA SBIR Phase II. The FOAM pod is taking the facility to the warfighter, empowering the warfighter to control their own destiny, and enabling the on-demand manufacture of metal, plastic, and composite repair/replacement parts in 2-3 days. The pod is containerized manufacturing suite of part scanners, part form/fit/function databases, 3D printers, and production equipment (injection and compression molding) that limits the required training of the operators while maximizing the number of parts to which it is applicable. Parts can be produced that fit within a cubic foot volume out of the material most desirable for the application and can replace damaged, lost, or worn aluminum and/or stainless-steel parts on a strength basis, stiffness/weight basis, and strength/weight basis. While the FOAM Pod development SBIR is focusing on realizing an in-field repair part production facility, this program will begin qualifying parts produced by the system and the system itself through the standard Source Approval Request process. Components of interest on the published SBIR 20.3 parts list include the Sling Rail Adapter (FSC: 1005, NIIN: 015897062, and PN: RMFL-125) and the Wheel Hub Cap (FSC: 2530, NIIN 015521192, and PN: 12490289). The Sling Rail Adapter and Wheel Hubcap are in current use by infantry and M1 Abrams brigades, respectively, with annual demand quantities of ~12,000 and ~15,500, respectively. The high annual demand of both parts is enhanced by their simple, yet critical operational need. In general, approving the FOAM pod as an in-field source for repair parts for the warfighter eliminates costly and cumbersome inventory from being shipped around the world that may never be used, saving DLA and the various DoD departments millions of dollars in transport, storage, and oversight costs. The applicability of the FOAM pod is widespread and Dynovas intends to review the needs at the time of award to select the most critical components applicable to the system. After achieving source approval of the targeted components, Dynovas will initiate the large part portfolio approval request via “similarity” and overall approval qualification of the FOAM pod. Dynovas is a proposing a Phase I base program focusing on manufacturing aesthetically and geometrically acceptable components, a first option program focusing on testing, qualification, and final source approval of targeted components, and a second option program focusing on expanding the source approvals of the first option to parts by similarity and preparing the overall FOAM pod source approval plan.