Lightweight Tank Road Wheel

As part of ongoing efforts to reduce tank track and suspension systems weights, Lightweighting research and development (R&D) efforts in the DoD require the identification of design optimization and material combinations to reduce Track road wheels. Design proposals and analytical assessment of design and material combinations will be developed and assessed. This effort seeks companies able to perform modeling and simulation for weight optimization assessments and create or optimize an existing (and provided) designs for an existing vehicle component (Track road wheel). The selected component optimization will be replacing an existing legacy item. This 1 year effort is divided into 2 portions. The First portion will be to design and deliver and optimized Track road wheels designs and associated materials assessment and specifications. The Analysis of Alternatives should include assessment of manufacturing readiness for design options to include materials, and provide guidance for investment required to reduce manufacturing and material development risks for solutions deemed high reward, but incurring high risk due to materials, manufacturing or other factors not here identified. Projected cost estimates for prototypes and production should be included. The second portion of the effort is to build and deliver a pre-determined number of prototype demonstration units of the selected weight optimized design in the specified material for testing and physical analysis. The government shall provide loading conditions, performance specifications and CAD drawings as required by selected contractor. Overall, the Government is seeking the application of automotive / aerospace / more advanced system component multi-objective design optimization techniques that demonstrate the selected solution is not simply feasible or sufficient in meeting requirements, but is computationally proven to be a minimum weight solution within the provided design and cost constraints.