Description
Objective: The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) seeks to provide responsive, best value supplies of related materials consistently to our Department of War (DoW) customers and other DoW stakeholders. DLA continually investigates a variety of critical minerals for more efficient means of their production, opportunities for recycling, and more competitive domestic supply chains which would lead to higher levels of innovation in current and future systems combined with benefits to other commercial and government technology applications. In an effort to reduce costly foreign reliance and/or single points of failure, DLA is looking to establish domestic capabilities to produce high purity refractory powders for applications in aerospace alloys and ultra-high temperature ceramics (UHTC) used in hypersonic and other defense platforms. The end goal of the project would be for the development of domestic suppliers that would produce industrial quantities of high purity, low oxygen refractory powders to include carbides, borides, and metals containing Hf, Zr, V, Nb, Ta, Cr, Mo, W, etc. The powders should be well characterized for metals purity, oxygen content, morphology, particle size, and sintering characteristics. New and novel ideas that would allow for competitive pricing compared to imported raw materials will have preference. Ideally, the production process would be modular and scalable. These areas of materials and manufacturing technology provide potential opportunities toward achieving breakthrough advances for national defense. Proposed efforts funded under this topic may encompass diverse feedstock and processing at any level that will result in increasing production capacity, affordability, and supply chain resiliency. Research and Development (R&D) efforts selected under this topic shall demonstrate and involve a degree of risk where the technical feasibility of the proposed work has not been fully established. Further, proposed efforts must be judged to be at a Technology and/or Manufacturing Readiness Level (TRL/MRL) 6 or less, but greater than TRL/MRL 3 to receive funding consideration. TRL 3. (Analytical and Experimental Critical Function and/or Characteristic Proof of Concept) TRL 6. (System/Subsystem Model or Prototype Demonstration in a Relevant Environment) Description: Refractory powders are a critical feedstock for many high-temperature defense applications, and the US is strongly reliant on imported materials to meet production needs. Varying powder qualities and increasing procurement costs/lead times upstream limit domestic production capabilities downstream. To this end, DLA is looking for wholly domestic capabilities to recycle and produce refractory metals, carbides, and borides that meet or exceed defense specifications. Novel techniques that increase the domestic availability and supply chain resiliency of refractory materials will have preference. The ideal production process will be both modular and easily scalable. Keywords: Refractory, carbides, borides, powders, sinterability, domestic supply chain CMMC Level: Level 2 (Self)