Ground Combat Vehicle Weld Code- Aluminum- GCVWC- Aluminum

Request For Information DESCRIPTION OF INTENT: THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) ONLY. This RFI is issued solely for information and planning purposes. No contract will be awarded from this announcement. This is not a Request for Proposal (RFP) or an announcement of a forthcoming solicitation, nor is it a request seeking contractors to be placed on a solicitation mailing list. Response to this RFI is voluntary and no reimbursement will be made for any costs associated with providing information in response to it and any follow-on information requests. Data submitted in response to this RFI will not be returned. No solicitation document exists at this time, and calls requesting a solicitation will not be answered. It is the responsibility of Industry, when providing any comments/responses, to properly mark such information that is considered proprietary or is otherwise restricted. The United States Government (USG) is not obligated to protect unmarked data. Nor is the Government obligated for like data in possession of third parties or for data which is afterwards placed in the public domain by the contractor or by third parties through no fault of the USG. Should the USG need to reproduce the protected data for distribution purposes between Governments offices, all such data will be reproduced with restrictive legends in place. DISCLAIMER: Reference herein to any specific commercial company, product, process, or service by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise, does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the United States Government or the Department of the Army (DA). The opinions of the authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the United States Government or the DA, and shall not be used for advertising or product endorsement purposes. PROPRIETARY INFORMATION The USG acknowledges its obligations under the Federal Acquisition Regulation 3.104-4 to protect confidential information provided to the Government (18 U.S.C. - 1905). Pursuant to this statute, the USG is willing to accept any trade secrets or proprietary restrictions placed upon qualifying data forwarded in response to this RFI and to protect such information from unauthorized disclosure, subject to the following: *Qualifying data must be clearly marked PROPRIETARY and be accompanied by an explanatory text so that the Government is clearly notified as to exactly what data so qualifies. *Mark only data that is truly confidential. *Do not mark data that is already in the public domain or is already in possession of the USG or third parties on an unclassified basis. *Proprietary data transmitted electronically must have the PROPRIETARY legend on both the cover of the transmittal e-mail as well as at the beginning of the file. Proprietary information contained within the correspondence shall use the legends: "PROPRIETARY PORTION BEGINS" and "PROPRIETARY PORTION ENDS." *The USG is not obligated to protect unmarked data. Nor is the Government obligated for like data in possession of third parties or for data which is afterwards placed in the public domain by the contractor or by third parties through no fault of the USG. Should the USG need to reproduce the protected data for distribution purposes between Government offices, all such data will be reproduced with restrictive legends in place. Support Contractors: The Government sometimes uses support contractors in evaluating responses. Consequently, responses that contain proprietary information may receive only limited or no consideration since the Respondent's marking of data as "PROPRIETARY" will preclude disclosure to those outside the Government and therefore will preclude disclosure to these support contractors assisting the evaluation effort. The Government will use its best efforts to evaluate those responses that contain proprietary information without using support contractors consistent with the resources available. Responses to this request for information should be sent via e-mail to Matthew Kainz at matthew.j.kainz.civ@mail.mil. You are requested to put ""GCVWC - Aluminum (12472301)" " in the subject line of the e-mail and attachments shall be in MS Word or PDF format. Any request for clarifications shall also be addressed to matthew.j.kainz.civ@mail.mil. Request for access to the "GCVWC - Aluminum (12472301)" attachment, that may assist in answering the RFI questions shall be submitted to matthew.j.kainz.civ@mail.mil. INSTRUCTIONS FOR RESPONDING TO THIS REQUEST: Responses to the RFI are due on 11 February 2019. Responses received after this, whether received by email or by mail, may not be considered. Please note that all questions and answers will be posted anonymously to this website. The cut-off date for questions is 24 January 2019. Questions that are received by this office after the deadline will be considered late and may not be answered. Any information that cannot be sent via email can be sent on two (2) identical compact disks (CDs) or Digital Versatile Disc (DVD) in MS Word or PDF format to the following address: U.S. Army Contracting Command - Warren ATTN: Matthew Kainz TACOM/mail Stop 509 6501 E 11 Mile Rd Warren, MI 48397 INFORMATION REQUESTED FROM INDUSTRY: Company - a. Name: - b. Mailing Address: c. Website: - d. CAGE (commercial and government entity) Code (if any): - e. North America Industry Classification System (NAICS) number: f. Business size and eligibility under USG social-economic programs and preference: Personnel Responding to RFI a. Name: - b. Title: c. Company Responsibility/Position: - d. Telephone/Fax Numbers: - e. E-Mail Address: OBJECTIVE The purpose of this RFI is to gather information that would aid the Program Manager - Armored Fighting Vehicle (PM AFV) in the evaluation of the TACOM Ground Combat Vehicle Welding Code (GCVWC) against alternative weld processes for welding thick aluminum plates. The prime task is to compare and highlight differences between the GCVWC - Aluminum (12472301) and alternative weld codes or specifications utilized by other Department of Defense Agencies as well as commercial industry standards. Determine whether or not the differences make the GCVWC too difficult to meet. Response shall be in white paper format. GENERAL INFORMATION: Program Executive Office Ground Combat System (PEO GCS) manages ground combat vehicles throughout their lifecycle to include production of these assets. Recently, PEO GCS has awarded contracts to procure several new build vehicles which require large and complicated weldments. INSTRUCTIONS FOR COMPLETING SURVEY: 1. Please respond to every question. 2. Number each response with the appropriate question number. 3. You do not have to repeat the question in your response. 4. If you cannot answer the question, please indicate "No Response." 5. If a response will satisfy another question, state: "See response to question XX." 6. Spell out any acronyms in their first instance. 7. If proprietary information is provided, please provide a release statement indicating that the proprietary information may be distributed to Army personnel involved with this Market Survey. QUESTIONAIRE: Please provide a white paper regarding the TACOM GCVWC including the following responses: The Attachment titled, "GCVWC - Aluminum (12472301)" contains additional requirements information that may assist in answering the following questions but will only be provided upon request to U.S. DoD Contractors, after evaluation and determination that requestor is allowed access. Access to the attachment is not guaranteed to contractors that do not fall into either of these categories but request may be submitted for evaluation to the persons identified under, "Instructions For Responding to this Request". 1. Describe your experience with combat vehicles: a. Explain... 2. Provide your experience with thick plate aluminum welding for combat vehicles. a. Have you executed thick plate aluminum welds per the "Ground Combat Vehicle Weld Code - Aluminum (12472301)" in a production environment? i. If yes, provide examples. 3. Describe your experience with commercial and other Military welding codes/specs. 4. Describe the certification/accreditation of staff in regards to welding. (i.e. AWS, CWB, API, ASNT, etc)