S²MARTS Project No. 20-04

The awardees for 2004 REP SMAC are Gas Management Company (Air Conditioner Relief Valve) and Michaeloff Engineering (Motor Protector).


The DoD is seeking prototyping support to address Obsolescence, Data Management and Re-Engineering issues. In order to achieve DoD strategic goals, obsolescence management is of ever-increasing importance. Addressing obsolescence and other readiness issues with parts, sub-systems and systems in which no direct replacement or upgrade exists, and doing so in a timely manner, is required to maintain fleet readiness and support ongoing deployments to achieve national strategic policy objectives.

The current processes used to address obsolescence issues are based on the engineering, design, and procurement processes utilized in new acquisition, and planned maintenance of the in-service feet. As a result, these processes do not adequately address issues caused be increased reliance on Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) components, longer ship life cycle, long term industrial base changes, supply chain integrity/security requirements or increased operational demands being placed on the fleet.

Processes, procedures, and supporting tools to develop prototype parts, subsystems and systems to meet rapidly emerging obsolescence requirements are required to effectively support the DoD. These will include, but are not limited to reverse engineering, redesign, development, testing, and fielding support; technical data package development, and other data support; technical data conversion; distribution of technical data; and management of technical data and other related technical support. This support will include development, prototype testing and implementation of relevant processes and tools. Technical Data Packages for replacements for specific obsolete parts, sub-systems, and systems will be developed under this effort based on the on-going needs of the DoD, in order to demonstrate the effectiveness of the prototype processes, procedures and supporting tools.

Specifically, this project will seek solutions for obsolete Motor Protectors and Air Conditioner Relief Valves for the Navy’s fleet. The current processes used to address parts obsolescence do not adequately address the issues caused by increased reliance on Commercial Off the Shelf (COTS) components and a longer ship life cycle means that the ships are outlasting the various parts. Currently available COTS Motor Protectors and Air Conditioner System Relief Valves solutions did not meet functional requirements or have failed in shipboard environments. Vibrations that exist shipboard do not occur in factories, which results in failures of COTS equipment not designed to withstand these shipboard vibrations. NSWCPD seeks to reverse engineer the Motor Protectors and Air Conditioner System Relief Valves and use performance requirements to design, demonstrate and test new concepts that can withstand the harsh operational environment, consisting of years at sea and very little down time.