Attachment 7 - Q and A - 8 March 22 - CO Signed.pdf

DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE

AIR FORCE LIFE CYCLE MANAGEMENT CENTER (AFMC)

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE OHIO

8 March 2022

FROM: AFLCMC/PZIBC

1940 Allbrook Drive, Room 109

Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433

SUBJECT: Response to Inquiries regarding FA8601-22-R-0018

QUESTIONS

QUESTION 1:

We previously asked:

"One of the requirements states the following: "Powder recoater assembly allowing the utilization of hard and/or soft wiper blades. Assembly shall allow between 1 and 3 blades to be utilized at once." Our standard setup is we supply 15 silicone blades (Shore 30).

We would like to understand if you'd expect us to supply you with the blades of different rigidity

(for example, ranging from Shore 10 to 30) or if you plan to prepare these using your own means

(for example, by using molding).

If you'd expect us to supply these, could you please indicate how many blades and what rigidity shall they have (for example, 5 blades Shore 10, 5 blades Shore 20, 5 blades Shore 30)?"

YOUR ANSWER: We would prefer that wiper materials could be readily purchased as consumable items from the manufacturer or a 3rd party after the initial machine purchase. The requirement for utilizing multiple wiper blades refers to the desire to use up to 3 wiper blades in the wiper assembly at one time to give each part multiple wipes.

TO CLARIFY:

The supply of the wiper materials shouldn't be an issue. They can be (a) purchased from the manufacturer, (b) be supplied by a US-based third-party (we'll provide them with the technical specifications, and there are plenty of US-based production companies who specialize in silicone molding), or (c) production of these could be moved in-house as some of our customers choose to do.

We also understand your requirement of utilizing up to 3 wiper blades simultaneously. The current design of the system allows for that.

What we're trying to clarify is the following: when we supply you with the metal additive manufacturing system, by default we supply 15 silicone wiper blades (Shore 30). We can leave it

"as is" and calculate our quote based off of that, or you may prefer to specify that you'd like us to supply you with wiper blades of varying rigidity from day 1. For example, 5 wiper blades (Shore

10), 5 wiper blades (Shore 20), 5 wiper blades (Shore 30), or any other combination you're interested in. That way you will have wiper blades of varying rigidity to get started with from the day the installation is complete.

The reason why we are asking for that input in advance is it affects our cost of production, so if you could specify whether your team is fine with the standard offering of 15 wiper blades (Shore

30) or if we will be doing a custom build, please let us know as this will affect our calculations.

ANSWER 1: The standard offering of 15 wiper blades (Shore 30) is fine.

QUESTION 2: The supplier of the thermal tomography camera would also like to clarify the following: "What is the expected temperature range of the material that the customer wishes to monitor?"

The melting point of tungsten is around 3,422 °C. So we specified that the camera should be capable of monitoring temperature ranges of up to 3,500 °C.

Please confirm.

ANSWER 2: Over-specifying here would drive a certain solution which wasn’t in mind with the original solicitation. An IR camera with a range of the melting point of one metal, especially tungsten, may limit its usefulness to monitor the steady temperature of all parts throughout the build. This use case is more relevant to our intent. We have measured steady temperatures of parts reach

200-300 Celsius without the use of a heated bed. A camera around this range and perhaps as high as 1000 C would meet the intent.

QUESTION 3: In your response to our question about the security requirements you wrote:

"Security requirements surrounding the files being processed sometimes excludes any data handling outside of government controlled networks. FOUO, CUI etc."

In our standard setup, when uploading an STL file for slicing, the file will be sent to an external server in Germany to slice the model with the parameters set by you, then be returned back to your browser for download.

Do I understand correctly that this setup won't be accepted by the Wright-Patterson Air Force

Base?

If that is the case, the only solution is to set up a local server at your location, please confirm.

ANSWER 3: Yes, we would require a server at our facility to process the files to match our current capability. We currently slice files in the facility/without the need of an internet connection for security purposes.

Zachary Huffman

Contracting Officer