Friday, October 10, 2008

CPS Technologies tapped for Army armor R&D deal

By Mass High Tech Staff

Advanced materials company CPS Technologies Corp. says that the U.S. Army Research Laboratory has awarded the Norton-based company a Cooperative Research And Development Agreement (CRADA) to continue to develop manufacturing technologies to make large modules of hybrid metal matrix composite armor.

According to CPS officials, the CRADA has a four-year term, and the company has received a commitment of government funding of $1 million for the first year. The funding falls under the U.S. Department of Defense Manufacturing Technology Program.
 
CPS (OTCB: CPSH) will continue to work on manufacturing technology that can produce large modules of armor material using its HybridTech metal matrix composite armor technology, as well as technologies developed at the Army Research Lab.  HybridTech armor modules of high-tech ceramic composite materials enclosed inside — and mechanically and chemically bonded to — an aluminum metal matrix composites skin. 

In 2006, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) initially selected CPS to compete in the DARPA Armor Challenge. DARPA, looking to reduce the weight of vehicle armor by 50 percent and develop an alternative to rolled steel, launched the Armor Challenge program, which ended in January 2007.

Known as Ceramics Process Systems when it spun out of MIT in 1984, CPS maintains a 37,000-square-foot manufacturing plant in Norton. The company’s clients include Motorola Inc., Texas Instruments Inc. and Hewlett-Packard Development Co.