SOLICITATION NOTICE
66 -- Q50 THERMOGRAVIMETRIC ANALYZER WITH MASS FLOW CONTROL
- Notice Date
- 3/20/2006
- Notice Type
- Solicitation Notice
- Contracting Office
- 3610 Collins Ferry Road (MS-I07) P.O. Box 880 Morgantown, WV
- ZIP Code
- 00000
- Solicitation Number
- DE-RQ26-06NT00155
- Response Due
- 4/3/2006
- Archive Date
- 10/3/2006
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- SUBJECT: Q50 THERMOGRAVIMETRIC ANALYZER WITH MASS FLOW CONTROL DESC: The U.S. Department of Energy???s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL), Pittsburgh, PA intends to award a purchase order on a sole-source basis to TA Instruments ??? Waters LLC, New Castle, DE 19720 for the purchase for the purchase of a Thermogravimetric Analyzer with Mass Flow Control, the following additional items listed below. The following specifications are required: 1. Q50 Thermogravimetric Analyzer with Mass Flow Control: Features should include a dual range microbalance (0-200 mg and 0-1 gram ranges respectively) with autoswitching between the ranges using a vertical balance design with a horizontal gas purge. Features should include automated pan loading and furnace movement, plus software controlled, dual, mass flow controllers with automated gas switching. Up to 500 microliter pan sizes are required. The module should include Advantage software for complete experimental control of all Q Series and 2XX0 thermal modules in a Windows XP or 2000 Professional environment. The software should support Unicode, and include a choice of English, German, Japanese and Chinese languages. It should have extensive setup templates and wizards, on-line help menus with diagnostics and multimedia support, plus Universal Analysis 2000. Other features should include real time data analysis , autoanalysis, ability to create up to 20 simultaneous curve overlay plot, a customer report generator using Microsoft Word and Excel templates, spreadsheet text files, PCX and HPGL graphics files, and ability to export ASCII data files. The operating and data analysis software would be unkeyed and able to be installed on Windows 2000 or XP compatible computers with CD-ROM drives ??? 1 each. 2. Evolved Gas Analysis (EGA) Furnace for Q series TGA. Specially designed furnace for evolved gas testing with FT-IR, MS and GC. Furnace windings should be outside the quartz furnace tube to prevent off gases from reacting with the furnace windings. The quartz furnace tube should be a reduced volume of about 20 mL to prevent the dilution of the off gas concentration thus providing ultra high sensitivity for detection of the evolved gases. Connection required to connect with a standard 1/8 inch Swag-lok fitting ??? 1 each. 3. Kit Ethernet Switch for communication between a Q Series module and an external controller ??? 1 each. 4. Installation & Training: Installation shall be provided according to ISO 9000 procedure. GENERAL NOTES: System described above requires a computer/controller which meets the minimu8m specifications, as described in TA Instruments Installation Requirements for Thermal Analysis/Rheology Systems. This purchase order is being issued to TA Instrument ??? Waters LLC because this is a replacement for an existing unit in our laboratory. (1) All of our existing TGA instrumentation is from TA Instruments. The Q50 is the latest generation of hardware, which is directly compatible and uses common components (balance) as our existing instrumentation. In addition, the Q50 uses a common software platform as our existing instruments both for data acquisition and data analysis. We anticipate the need to directly compare data generated on our existing instruments with that generated on the new TGA. This can only be accomplished directly by adding the TA Instruments hardware. In addition, our laboratory personnel are currently trained to operate both the TA Instruments hardware and software, so no additional training will be required. Finally, the TA Instruments Q50 TGA uses the same balance mechanism and thermocouples as our existing units, which allows for interchangeability of components if necessary. 1) In addition to the hardware/software compatibility issues, the Q50 TGA from TA Instruments includes some proprietary features which are either highly desirable or integral to our laboratory. These include: a) A proprietary pan-loading mechanism by which the user is not required to manually load the sample into the instrument. This dramatically simplifies the loading process, and protects against damage to the instrument which may be caused by incorrect sample loading. Competitive instruments require manual insertion of the sample which can lead to excessive wear and/or damage to the instrument. b) Integrated dual-digital mass-flow controllers, which allow for the automated control and datalogging of purge gas streams which are vitally important to our catalyst research. Competitive instruments required an external gas controlling accessory which adds cost, and does not datalog the purge flow rate. c) A small-volume, quartz lined furnace which protects against corrosion. Our catalysis experiments produce potentially corrosive off-gas which can be damaging to typical ceramic furnaces employed in competitive instrumentation. In addition, ceramic furnaces are porous and can desorb reactive gas introduced in prior experiments, creating the possibility of an experimental ???memory??? effect. 3) In addition to these unique features TA Instruments is the world???s market share leader, with over a 50% market share, in both Thermal Analysis and Rheology. TA Instruments also maintains the market leading position in customer support and satisfaction (as measured by independent customer surveys). TA Instruments is very well positioned to provide the highest quality of product, service and support to Parsons and NETL. They have Technical and Service Support staff located within 3 hours drive of Morgantown and guarantees 24 hour response times for technical support. All responsible sources may submit a bid, proposal, or quotation which shall be considered by this agency. All interested firms must respond to DE-RQ26-06NT00155. Offerors shall provide sufficient technical literature, documents, etc., in order for the Government evaluation team to make an adequate technical assessment of the quote as meeting technical acceptability. Therefore, no solicitation will result with this announcement. This award shall be made using FAR 13, Simplified Acquisition Procedures. The North American Industry Classification (NAIC) is 334516. Request for information should be addressed to Mr. Robert L. Mohn, FAX 412-386-5770. The Technical Representative for the above requirement is Ms. Carolyn Britton, Phone 304-285-4734. All bids, proposals, or quotations must be submitted by 5:00 PM Eastern Time, April 3, 2006.
- Web Link
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Click here for further details regarding this notice.
(https://e-center.doe.gov/iips/busopor.nsf/UNID/43C658A2093375CE8525713700673AFD?OpenDocument)
- Record
- SN01009856-W 20060322/060320211721 (fbodaily.com)
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