Project TAMPA - Additive Manufacturing as a Service Challenge

Tender description

Additive Manufacturing (AdM), also known as 3D printing, is a range of manufacturing technologies that enable the creation of lighter, stronger parts and systems. It has the potential to address significant issues within Defence such as excessive lead times for Defence inventory and manufacture of obsolete/obsolescent parts to improve platform availability. A Prior Information Notice (PIN) was published on 11/04/2022 to inform the market of an upcoming Framework Agreement opportunity under the Reference Number 703280451, titled ‘Metal Additive Manufacturing as a Service Challenge’. This Project will now be known as ‘Project TAMPA –Additive Manufacturing as a Service Challenge’ under the new Reference Number of this Opportunity Listing. The Authority wishes to enter into a multi-supplier Framework Arrangement for accelerating the maturity of Additive Manufacturing technology to better exploit the technology within the end-to-end support chain, deliver a more agile response to demand for parts, and begin to generate the inherent efficiencies that this technology promises. The Authority intends to seek bids for limited innovation funding to conduct spiral development tasks under the new Framework; spiral tasks will be awarded via mini-competition between Framework participants (the Authority may choose to include the first task with the Framework Invitation to Tender). The Authority currently estimates the Framework value between £3M - 5M, duration of 2 - 7 years. It is recognised that the funding available from the Authority needs to be underpinned by a level of investment from suppliers in order to realise the advantages of this technology. The Authority also requires that suppliers wishing to apply for this Opportunity must already have one or more extant equipment/platform support contracts in place with the Ministry of Defence to provide military spares under NSN; the supply of spare parts must be capable of benefitting from Metal Additive Manufacturing technolo