DEPARTMENT OF THE ARMY SMALL BUSINESS INNOVATION RESEARCH (SBIR) PROGRAM SBIR 21.4 Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) Army Applied SBIR Opportunity (ASO) Announcement April 1, 2021: ASO issued for pre-release April 14, 2021: Army begins accepting proposals May 20, 2021: Deadline for receipt of proposals no later than 12:00 p.m. ET IMPORTANT Deadline for Receipt : Proposals must be completely submitted no later than 12:00 p.m. ET, May 20, 2021. Proposals submitted after 12:00 p.m. will not be evaluated. The final proposal submission includes successful completion of all firm level forms, all required volumes, and electronic corporate official certification. Classified proposals will not be accepted under the DoD SBIR Program. This BAA and the Defense SBIR/STTR Innovation Portal (DSIP) sites are designed to reduce the time and cost required to prepare a formal proposal. The DSIP is the official portal for DoD SBIR/STTR proposal submission. Proposers are required to submit proposals via DSIP; proposals submitted by any other means will be disregarded. Proposers submitting through this site for the first time will be asked to register. Effective with this announcement, firms are required to register for a login.gov account and link it to their DSIP account. See section 4.14 for more information regarding registration. The Small Business Administration, through its SBIR/STTR Policy Directive, purposely departs from normal Government solicitation formats and requirements and authorizes agencies to simplify the SBIR/STTR award process and minimize the regulatory burden on small business. Therefore, consistent with the SBA SBIR/STTR Policy Directive, the Department of Defense is soliciting proposals as a Broad Agency Announcement. SBIR/STTR Updates and Notices: To be notified of SBIR/STTR opportunities and to receive e-mail updates on the DoD SBIR and STTR Programs, you are invited to subscribe to our Listserv by emailing
[email protected]. Help Desk: If you have questions about the Defense Department's SBIR or STTR Programs, please call the DoD SBIR/STTR Help Desk at 1-703-214-1333, or email to
[email protected]. Topic Q&A : The Topic Q&A for this BAA opens on April 1, 2021 and closes to new questions on May 4, 2021 at 12:00 PM ET. Proposers may submit written questions through Topic Q&A at https://www.dodsbirsttr.mil/submissions/login or through the SBIR Mailbox at usarmy.pentagon.hqda-asa-alt.mbx.army-applied-sbir-program@mail.mil. In Topic Q&A, the questioner and respondent remain anonymous and all questions and answers are posted electronically for general viewing. Once the BAA closes to proposal submission, no communication of any kind with the topic author or through Topic Q&A regarding your submitted proposal is allowed. Questions should be limited to specific information related to improving the understanding of a particular topic’s requirements. Proposing firms may not ask for advice or guidance on solution approach and you may not submit additional material to the topic author. If information provided during an exchange with the topic author is deemed necessary for proposal preparation, that information will be made available to all parties through Topic Q&A. Proposing firms are advised to monitor Topic Q&A during the BAA period for questions and answers. Proposing firms should also frequently monitor DSIP for updates and amendments to the topics. This Army Applied SBIR Opportunity (ASO) is issued under the Army Broad Agency Announcement (BAA) for SBIR/STTR 21.4. All proposals in response to the technical area(s) described herein will be submitted in accordance with the instructions provided under 21.4, found here: https://beta.sam.gov/opp/b79ded14dcf54451bcfb11bddf5cd259/view?keywords=%22army%20sbir%22&sort=-relevance&index=opp&is_active=true&page=1. a. Eligibility The eligibility requirements for the SBIR/STTR programs are unique and do not correspond to those of other small business programs. Please refer to Section 3.1, Eligible Applicants, of BAA 21.4 for full eligibility requirements. b. Anticipated Structure/Award Information Please refer to Section 1, Funding Opportunity Description, provided in BAA 21.4 for detailed information regarding SBIR/STTR phase structure and flexibility. For this BAA, Department of the Army will accept Phase I proposals for the cost of up to $259,613 for a 6-month period of performance. Proposers should refer to Section 4, Application and Submission information, of BAA 21.4 for detailed proposal preparation instructions. Proposals that do not comply with the requirements detailed in BAA 21.4 and the research objectives of this ASO are considered non-conforming and therefore are not evaluated nor considered for award. Phase I proposals shall not exceed 5 pages. Phase I commercialization strategy shall not exceed 2 pages. This should be the last section of the Technical Volume and will not count against the 5-page limit. Please refer to Appendix A of BAA 21.4 for detailed instructions on Phase I proposal preparation. c. Evaluation of Proposals Section 5, Evaluation of Proposals, in BAA 21.4 provides detailed information on proposal evaluation and the selection process for this ASO. d. Due Date/Time Full proposal packages (Proposal Cover Sheet, Technical Volume, Price/Cost Volume, and Company Commercialization Report inclusive of supporting documentation) must be submitted via the DoD SBIR/STTR Proposal Submission website per the instructions outlined in BAA 21.4 Section 4.3 Electronic Submission no later than 12:00 p.m. ET, May 20, 2021. Army SBIR 21.4 Topic Index A214-031 Hard Armor Ballistic Plate Boron Carbon Recovery and Reclamation OBJECTIVE: Product Manager Soldier Survivability (PM SSV) of the Program Executive Office (PEO) Solider, Fort Belvoir, VA 22060, seeks information from potential industry partners to support the Army’s effort to recover boron carbon (B4C) from the hard armor ballistic plates used throughout the Department of Defense (DoD). PM SSV is charged with improving the lethality and mobility of the force by optimizing Solider protection and effectively serving as the Lifecycle Manager for all personal protective equipment. As such, advanced technology demonstrations for affordability and advanced industrial practices to demonstrate the combination of improved discrete-parts recycling, manufacturing and improved business methods are of interest. All these areas of recycling and manufacturing technologies provide potential avenues toward achieving breakthrough advances in PM SSV’s mission. Proposed efforts funded under this topic may encompass any specific discrete-parts or materials recycling, manufacturing or processing technology at any level resulting in a unit cost reduction. Research and Development 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 Readiness Level (TRL) 6 or less, but greater than TRL 3 to receive funding consideration. DESCRIPTION: Currently, the DoD sends defective and unserviceable hard Side Armor Protective Insert (SAPI) ballistic plates to the Defense Logistics Agency Disposition Services for demilitarization (DEMIL) and thus renders those plates to an unusable state. Recovery of raw materials from these DEMIL plates could reduce the amount of boron carbon (B4C) mined and refined. Additionally, there is limited domestic production of these materials and therefore, the supply chain is at risk of foreign reliance. The goal is to recover B4C, at a suitable purity level, to potentially reintroduce into manufacturing, repurposing, or placing into strategic stockpiles. Developing an economically viable, environmentally friendly process for recycling of hard armor ballistic plates from the existing feedstock could facilitate the establishment of a viable, competitive domestic supply chain. If this produces a viable reclamation methodology and sustainable process it may lead to follow-on efforts at the discretion of the U.S. Government. R&D tasks include identifying additional feedstock sources in the existing supply chain and developing processes for hard armor plates recycling, that demonstrates a significant cost advantage versus standard processing. The process should be amenable to the scale of operation required in hard armor manufacturing and will improve the economics of hard armor plates from recovered material for reuse, rather than depend on foreign reliance. PHASE I: Demonstrate, insofar as possible, the scientific, technical, and commercial feasibility of the concept. Include a plan to demonstrate the innovative recycling process and address implementation approaches for near term insertion into the manufacture of Department of Defense (DoD) systems, subsystems, components, or parts. This effort may be broken into phases that separately develop techniques for separating the plates into component parts, as well as grinding the B4C material. PHASE II: Develop applicable and feasible process demonstration for the approach described and demonstrate a degree of commercial viability. Validate the feasibility of the innovative process by demonstrating its use in the production, testing, and integration of items for PM SSV. Validation would include, but not be limited to, the following steps (each would have Quality control reviews to inform decisions to proceed forward): scaling-up of current recovery process, prototype quantities, data analysis, laboratory tests, system simulations, operation in testbeds, or operation in a demonstration system. A partnership with a current or potential supplier to PM SSV, DLA, OEM, or another suitable partner is highly desirable. Identify commercial benefit or application opportunities of the innovation. Innovative processes should be developed with the intent to readily transition to production in support of PM SSV and its supply chains. PHASE III: Technology transition via successful demonstration of a new process technology. This demonstration should show near-term application to one or more Department of Defense systems, subsystems, or components. This demonstration should also verify the potential for enhancement of quality, reliability, performance and/or reduction of unit cost or total ownership cost of the proposed subject. Private Sector Commercial Potential : Material manufacturing improvements, including development of domestic manufacturing capabilities, have a direct applicability to all defense system technologies. Material manufacturing technologies, processes, and systems have wide applicability to the defense industry including air, ground, sea, and weapons technologies. Competitive material manufacturing improvements should have leverage into private sector industries as well as civilian sector relevance. Many of the technologies under this topic would be directly applicable to other DoD agencies, NASA, and any commercial manufacturing venue. Advanced technologies for material manufacturing would directly improve production in the commercial sector resulting in reduced cost and improved productivity. KEYWORDS: Carbon Boron; Advanced Materials; Advanced Manufacturing; Ballistic Plate; Recycling; Repurposing; Reclamation REFERENCES: Crouch, I. G. “Introduction to armour materials,” The Science of Armour Materials. Woodhead Publishing, pgs. 1-54, 2017. Crouch, I. G., Franks, G. V., Tallon, C., Thomas, S., Naebe, M. The Science of Armour Materials. Woodhead Publishing, pgs. 331-393, 2017. Crouch, I. G. “Body armour – New materials, new systems,” Defence Technology, 15(3), pgs. 241-253, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dt.2019.02.002 Dresch, A. B., Venturini, J., Arcaro, S., Montedo, O. R. K., Bergmann, C. P. “Ballistic ceramics and analysis of their mechanical properties for armour applications: A review,” Ceramics International, 47(7), Part A, pgs. 8743-8761, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2020.12.095 Lo, C., Li, H., Toussaint, G., Hogan, J. “On the evaluation of mechanical properties and ballistic performance of two variants of boron carbide,” International Journal of Impact Engineering, 152, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijimpeng.2021.103846. Zhang, Y., Dong, H., Liang, K. Huang, Y. “Impact simulation and ballistic analysis of B4C composite armour based on target plate tests,” Ceramics International, 47(7), Part A, pgs. 10035-10049, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ceramint.2020.12.150.