The development and fabrication of Pb-Te pellets, contacted to Fe end caps, for use as elements in thermoelectric converters for the SNAP 10A program, is described. The method adopted consists of contacting, by hot pressing in a controlled atmosphere, 24 pellets simultaneously, using q-layer, 8-cavity graphite dies. The optimum hot pressing parameters were found to be 5000 psi at 1550 deg F for 30 min. Several thousand elements were produced by this relatively high-volume process, modifying the normally slow and expensive hot pressing by the use of multilayer, multicavity dies and automatic controls. (auth)