Robo Clasp CALL 001.pdf

BAA 21-S-5001

Amendment 4-Call 001 2023.01.23

CALL- 001 “ROBOTIC COMPOSITE LASER

ABLATION SURFACE PREPARATION (ROBO-CLASP)"

Broad Agency Announcement, Call 001: This is a call to BAA 21-S-5001 and the Call is entitled “ROBOTIC COMPOSITE LASER ABLATION SURFACE PREPARATION”

(ROBOCLASP).” This is a one-step Call. Please refer to BAA FA8650-21-S-5001 and Amendments for additional information. Items delineated in this document are specific to this Call.

Proposal Due Date and Time: Proposal(s) are due no later than 9 March 2023,

3.00 p.m. Wright-Patterson AFB, OH local time. The AF requests electronic proposals be submitted using BOTH DoD SAFE (primary method) and email

(backup method) to the following addresses:

michael.corbett.13@us.af.mil marina.papayanki@us.af.mil

If the contractor needs a DoD SAFE drop-off invite from the AF, please send that request to michael.corbett.13@us.af.mil and marina.papayanki@us.af.mil no later than 7 days prior to the due date of proposals to ensure a drop off code is provided in a timely manner.

Award Notices: Offerors will be notified whether their proposal is recommended for award on or about 24 March 2023. The notification is not to be construed to mean the award of a contract is assured, as availability of funds and successful negotiations are prerequisites to any award.

Estimated Program Cost: $1.5M

Anticipated Number of Awards: The Air Force anticipates awarding One award under this announcement. However, the Air Force reserves the right to award zero, one, or more contracts for all, some or none of the solicited effort based on the offeror’s ability to perform desired work and funding fluctuations.

This Call for proposals is being issued with Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) FA8650-21-S-5001. Offerors must refer to FA8650-21-S-5001 and

Amendments, which must be read in conjunction with this Call for Proposals.

**The following paragraphs of the BAA-FA8650-21-S-5001 Statement of Objectives shall be closed for White Paper submissions from Call solicitation through Call award:

** 2.1.3 Additive Manufacturing mailto:michael.corbett.13@us.af.mil mailto:marina.papayanki@us.af.mil

Address technical questions to the Technical POC: For CALL- 001, the

Technical POC is Adams Hicks, AFRL/RXMD, 2941 Hobson Way, Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-7750, adam.hicks.7@us.af.mil, (937) 656-7038.

Address contracting questions to the Contracting POC: For CALL – 001, the Contracting POC is Marina Papayanki, AFRL/RXKMM, Bldg 45, 2130 8th St., Wright-Patterson AFB, OH 45433-7541, marina.papayanki@us.af.mil, (937) 713- 9830, or alternatively Michael Corbett, AFRL/RXKMM, 2130 8th Street, WPAFB, OH

45433, michael.corbett.13@us.af.mil, 937-623-9474

Statement of Objectives:

1.0 PROGRAM GOAL:

Bonded composites are frequently used throughout the Air Force (AF), and previous

AFRL efforts have explored various bond preparation techniques to aid in the manufacturing of bonded composite structures. In the past few years, there has been a concerted effort to develop a novel femtosecond laser ablation process known as CLASP (Composite Laser Ablation Surface Preparation) to replace current antiquated Sand-to-Black processes. While the use of peel-ply and sanding are common surface preparation techniques these processes are slow, labor intensive, and produce hazardous waste streams. Previous programs have been focused on increasing TRL/MRL of the CLASP technology to aid in transition of CLASP into production. System Program Offices (SPOs), AF Prime contractors and Tier 1 suppliers, the SBIR office, and AFRL have all previously invested in the CLASP technology to speed transition and provide sound technical guidance to the CLASP development team.

While CLASP has shown great promise in achieving greater rates with lower variability and re-work, the current form-factor for CLASP is a technician driven gas-assisted handheld unit. To further speed the replacement of Sand-to-Black processes while providing rate and reliability improvements, robotic integration is necessary.

2.0 SCOPE: The program shall demonstrate the viability and rates of Robotic

Composite Laser Ablation Surface Preparation (Robo-CLASP) through automation, in-situ process monitoring and feed-forward control, novel laser sources, and complex optical configurations. The program shall be responsive to immediate

System Program Office (SPO) needs, as well as air logistics centers (ALCs), field units, acquisition offices, other AFRL organizations, and key outside organizations to enable product transition and implementation and meet mission goals. This program will conclude with a large-scale demonstrator of CLASP on a production or production relevant component geometry.

3.0 TECHNICAL:

3.1 Stationary Robotic Arm Integration

The contractor shall identify, develop, and evaluate the capability of robotic integration of the current CLASP end effector design (or with minimal enabling design changes) onto a fixed robotic arm for automated processing on flat or near-flat specimens. The contractor shall evaluate the process stability over a medium scale (>3’width, >2’ depth). Possible features in need of evaluation may include but are not limited to, stitching/overlap regions, surface topology as a function of location, physical load on the composite, fiber/robot implementation challenges, and high-acceleration effects on process stability.

3.2 Process efficiency and Rate Study

Robotic integration of the CLASP process opens up new avenues of potential processing methodologies. For example, utilizing the robotic arm movement may enable on-the-fly scanning methodologies to process long swaths of the target surface, as opposed to the current pick-and-place methodologies utilized in the current handheld configuration. In addition, higher power femtosecond lasers are entering the commercial market than were available at the invention of CLASP, which could be utilized in combination with precision automated positioning to enable dramatic speed increases over current capability. The contractor shall evaluate the effect of complex scan strategies and higher laser powers on the processing rate and how end-effector and system design may need to be altered to accommodate this new processing methodology. Rate and efficiency have the opportunity to be increased through feed-forward process control methods. In previous efforts, spectral in-situ process monitoring was demonstrated to be particularly useful in overcoming composite manufacturing variability (especially in resin cap thickness) to determine when the carbon fiber had been exposed. Future process control methodologies of interest may include but are not limited to thermal sensing, contact or contactless surface roughness measurements, electrical sensing, or refined optical/spectral methods. This effort is expected to inform the future design and implementation of

Robo-CLASP.

3.3 Confined Bay Processing

The ability to process in confined or otherwise constrained processing areas are a necessity for widespread adoption of the technology. The contractor shall work with the AF personnel and AF prime contractors to identify realistic constraints which the integrated Robo-CLASP system will need to overcome to achieve viable bond prep surfaces. Geometric constraints shall be evaluated to ensure access to all areas while maintaining hollow-core fiber integrity. Line of Sight (LoS) and angle of incidence (off-normal laser processing) issues may affect the processing methodologies and end effector design. While 100% laser coverage is desired, manufacturing realities may inhibit CLASP processing in certain regions. The contractor shall evaluate and may iterate on integration design aspects to maximize processable area and rates while denoting and reporting any discovered limitations.

In addition, the contractor will define and work to reduce the radius of curvature which is processable by the automated CLASP system. Ideally, this system will be able to process a 3’’ radius on convex curvatures and 6’’ radius on convex curvatures, however 12’’ and 18’’ radii, respectively, are acceptable.

3.4 Large Scale Trade Study

There exists a need in the AF community to process Large ( ≥ 70’’) continuous composite skins. This can either be achieved through a rail system granting one or more robotic arms access to the entirety of the work surface, or through one or more mobile robotic cells which could be moved and located to access the work surface along the length. Both have advantages and disadvantages over the other in terms of cost of implementation and precision/accuracy, and other methods not listed here may also be available for consideration. The contractor shall work with

AF personnel and AF prime contractors to quantify the advantages and disadvantages of identified implantation strategies and down-select so a single strategy for implantation into a demonstration article.

3.5 Large Scale Demonstration

Based on the results of the large-scale trade study, the contractor shall demonstrate the technology on a subsection of an identified production relevant geometry. While it is not feasible to anticipate demonstration on the entire length of a large composite element, the demonstrator highlights future capability to scale the developed technology to meet future AF demands in this area. For instance, processing the widest 5’ section of the selected geometry would be appropriate, while a scaled down component may not be representative to future implementation. Again, while 100% laser coverage is desired, manufacturing realities may inhibit CLASP processing in certain regions. The contractor shall evaluate and may iterate on integration design aspects to maximize processable area and rates while denoting and reporting any discovered limitations.

4.0 SYSTEM SAFETY:

The successful offeror shall comply with all federal, state, and local safety and environmental regulations.

This Program requires that the offeror perform a safety assessment per the safety policies of the organization and applicable regulations and laws. The successful cognizant safety authority at the offeror shall accept safety risk for any experimental efforts performed in the offeror's facility according to the offeror's specific safety policies. The offeror shall notify the AFRL TPOC that the safety assessment has been completed according to organizational policies and applicable regulations.

5.0 SECURITY REQUIREMENTS:

5.1 Operations Security (OPSEC)

The contractor shall participate in all activities associated with the disciplines of the organization's Industrial Security, Information Security, Personnel Security, Operations Security (OPSEC), and Antiterrorism programs, following appropriate measures in each program as required for this particular contract. Security measures are required to reduce program vulnerability from successful adversary collection, exploitation of critical information, and violations of export control requirements. The prime contractor shall ensure all subcontractors, if applicable, conform to these requirements as required by the prime contractor.

5.2 Program Protection Plan (PPP) Requirements

Any potential critical program information (CPI) generated as part of this effort will be reviewed to determine the need for a PPP or to be included as part of an existing

PPP.

6.0 DELIVERABLE ITEMS:

The deliverable items for this Call include the following data items:

A001 – S&T Reports (Final Report) A002 – S&T Reports (Billing Voucher)

A003 – Funds & Man-Hour Expenditure Report A005 –Status Report A006 – Presentation Material

7.0 SCHEDULE/FUNDING:

7.1 Overall Effort

The period of performance for the technical effort will be twenty-one (21) months technical plus an additional three (3) months for preparation, review, revision, and submittal of the approved final technical report.

7.2 Funding

Funding for Call 001 is $1,500,000. This funding profile is an estimate only and not a contractual obligation for funding. All funding is subject to change due to Government discretion and availability. Potential offerors should be aware that due to unanticipated budget fluctuations funding in any or all areas may change with little or no notice.