Sandia, Boeing establish partnership to develop mutually beneficial technologies
Sandia and the Boeing Company signed an umbrella cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) Sept. 5 to develop technologies that mutually benefit both.
The signing was part of a visit to Sandia by Boeing senior officials to discuss future joint projects and to tour Sandia facilities.
Signing the CRADA from Sandia were Al Romig, VP for Science & Technology and Partnerships 1000, and Jim Tegnelia, VP for Department of Defense (DoD) Programs 15000. Signing for Boeing was Dick Paul, Vice President for Strategic Development for the Boeing Phantom Works R&D unit.
“Sandia technology spans from basic and applied research to systems design and engineering, to safety and reliability assessments,” Al said. “These competencies, so critical to our national security mission, are also key enablers for Boeing’s wide range of space, communications, commercial airplane, and integrated defense systems. This CRADA allows us jointly to capitalize on our unique skills, technologies, and facilities so that we can both more readily succeed in meeting our mission needs and customer expectations.”
Boeing VP Dick Paul agreed, saying that this new CRADA will benefit both organizations.
“From the Boeing side, sharing technology with Sandia will help each of us bring new or improved products to market faster and to employ new manufacturing processes that reduce cycle time and cost while improving the quality and performance of our products and services,” Paul said. “It’s a win-win situation for everyone.”
The new umbrella CRADA paves the way for Sandia and Boeing to do business together, allowing them to add project-task statements without having to negotiate terms and conditions on each one. Technical work under this CRADA will be divided into separate and independent projects.
Negotiating the CRADA on the Sandia end were Victor Weiss (1323), Rusty Elliott (1500), and Duane Landa (1316), with Pam Duran (1323) processing the documentation.
“The potential scope of projects is broad and encompasses the wide variety of technologies at Sandia,” Jim said. “Each project must provide value to the industry parent and help maintain or expand the technology base vital to the Department of Energy’s mission and the DoD.”
The initial tasks will deal with concentrating solar power technology, headed up at Sandia by researchers Chuck Andraka and Scott Jones and Manager Craig Tyner (all 6216), who are working in conjunction with Boeing project engineers Mike McDowell and Bob Litwin.
The project objective is to establish a Boeing-Sandia partnership that will combine the strengths of each organization to make Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) a success. This relationship will include a broad range of CSP technologies, including power towers, solar troughs, and concentrated photovoltaics. The project will focus on the development of key demonstrations, risk-reduction testing, and economic/system analyses.
“CSP is poised for rapid growth in the renewable energy market, and the infusion of new technology and processes will facilitate reductions in capital and operations and maintenance cost, enabling CSP products,” said Craig.
“Teaming with Sandia on this CRADA will help accelerate progress toward our goal of developing CSP systems for generating clean, renewable electric power sources for consumer use,” said Litwin.
Later, more projects may be added in several technical categories, including materials and process science; modeling and simulation; sensors, tags, and associated electronics; microsystems science, technology, and components; logistics and supply-chain management tools; intelligent systems and robotics; manufacturing technologies; test techniques and facilities; pulsed power/directed energy sciences; safety; network and information security; signals processing and analysis; energy systems; and security.