Government Contracting Newsletter
January 2016
NEPA Alliance PTAC is Mobile Ready
PTAC Website and Newsletter Formatted for Mobile Devices
For many of us keeping up with the news is an activity occurring throughout the day and across different formats, devices, and technologies. Based on a survey conducted by the American Press Institute, among all adult Americans, 56 percent reported using a cell phone and 29 percent reported using a tablet to access news in the last week. This represents 78 percent of the 69 percent Americans who own a Smartphone and 73 percent of the 39 percent of Americans who own or use a tablet device. To best serve our clients, the NEPA Alliance PTAC Newsletter and PTAC website have been made mobile-ready. You are now able to stay updated on all PTAC activities using your Smartphone or tablet, in addition to your desktop/laptop computer, for a premium user experience regardless of the device used.
Carbondale Technical Transfer Center Update
Electronics Makerspace Incubator Resource Available
Building off their successful Kitchen Incubator, the Carbondale Technology Transfer Center (CTTC) has established an Electronics Makerspace Incubator at their 10 Enterprise Drive, Carbondale, PA facility to help regional entrepreneurs fabricate circuit boards prototypes or small runs of electronic circuit boards.
 
Efficiently and effectively utilizing approximately 500 square feet, the incubator houses three key machines allowing for the manufacturing of either prototypes or small lots of electronic circuit boards. The DDM Novastar equipment is comprised of:

* SPR-45VA Stencil Printer - design tool
* LS60V Pick and Place Machine with Vision and Feeders - builds the boards circuit-by-circuit.
* GF-B-HT Reflow Oven - heats and solders the circuit board.

Paul Browne, Executive Director of the CTTC, demonstrates a piece of equipment at the Electronic Incubator. Photo by: Michael J Mullen, Photographer Times Shamrock.
Electronics Makerspace users pay for time on the equipment, with some eventually renting space in the center. This lease-a-facility model is already paying dividends to regional businesses through CTTC's commercial kitchen, where small-scale food manufacturers cook, bake, package their products.

The Electronics Makerspace will serve small companies with specialized needs, typically in order to produce prototypes or short runs of fewer than 1,000 units. Having the prototypes or small runs made overseas can be time-consuming, costly, and expose a company to intellectual property risk.

Funding for the equipment came from the Local Share Account gaming funds, administered through the Commonwealth Financing Authority.
Defense Industry Updates
U.S. Army & Royal Canadian Air Force
General Dynamic Land Systems will design and develop a 30mm cannon to be mounted on an unmanned, stabilized turret onto the Stryker infantry carrier vehicle along with eight prototypes. The $75.3 million contract was awarded last week, and completion of the process is expected for January 2021. The development of the new unmanned cannon is part of efforts to increase the fire power capabilities of the vehicle and give infantrymen greater fire superiority in fire fights.

Canada's hunt for a new fleet of search and rescue aircraft will not consider Lockheed's C-130J. Proposals for the procurement were due mid-January and do include the Airbus C-295, Alenia's C-27J Spartan and Embraer's latest offering, the KC-390. Part of the competition involved the potential providers suggesting how many of their aircraft would be required by the Royal Canadian Air Force to conduct their operations, rather than a specified number being supplied by the government. Lockheed Martin's lack of participation in the competition is said to have been in reaction to the saga revolving around Canada's recent backing out of the F-35 program to launch a new procurement competition.

Source: Defense Industry Daily 1/20/16
Upcoming Procurements
ThePA E Marketplace following is a list of upcoming PA e-Marketplace procurements available from various Commonwealth Agencies. Many of these solicitations may not yet be advertised. Refer to the Solicitations section for those that are available for response. You can access the Solicitations by the Project Title's hyperlink shown below:

ID Number: 110713 - Agency: Revenue - Project Title: Tax Modernization
ID Number: 110795 - Agency: Human Services - Project Title: PA Collection & Disbursement Unit
ID Number: 110789 - Agency: Human Services- Project Title: Sludge Removal
ID Number: 110684- Agency: Administration - Project Title: Facility Maintenance - CTC
ID Number: 110649- Agency: Insurance - Project Title: USTIF Financial Services
ID Number: 110756- Agency: General Services: Music Therapy Services

Source: PA eMarketplace website
PTAC Factoid
"HP, Google, Microsoft, and Apple have one thing in common - apart from the obvious that they are IT companies. They were all started in garages."

Source: Funfactz.com website
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