Loren Data's SAM Daily™

FBO DAILY ISSUE OF JULY 22, 2011 FBO #3527
SOLICITATION NOTICE

A -- NOTICE OF INTENT

Notice Date

7/20/2011
 

Notice Type

Presolicitation
 

NAICS

541711 — Research and Development in Biotechnology
 

Contracting Office

Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Acquisition Management Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Building 301, Room B129, Mail Stop 1640, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 20899-1640
 

ZIP Code

20899-1640
 

Solicitation Number

NB6100301104193
 

Archive Date

8/23/2011
 

Point of Contact

Lynda M Roark, Phone: 3019753725, Todd D Hill, Phone: 301-975-8802
 

E-Mail Address

Lynda.Roark@nist.gov, todd.hill@nist.gov
(Lynda.Roark@nist.gov, todd.hill@nist.gov)
 

Small Business Set-Aside

N/A
 

Description

The Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), intends to negotiate a Cost Plus Fixed Fee purchase order, on a sole source basis, with Johns Hopkins University -Instrument Development Group of Baltimore, MD for the purchase of a Multi Axis Crystal Spectrometer (MACS) Cryogenic Filter Exchanger (CFX) Control System Development and Hardware Completion, under other than full and open competition. NIST cites FAR 6.302-1(a)(ii)(A) and (B) (see excerpt below) as primary rationale for Sole Source Determination. (ii) Supplies may be deemed to be available only from the original source in the case of a follow-on contract for the continued development or production of a major system or highly specialized equipment, including major components thereof, when it is likely that award to any other source would result in - (A) Substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition. (B) Unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency's requirements. (See 10 U.S.C. 2304(d)(1)(B) or 41 U.S.C. 253 (d)(1)(B).) Sole Source determination is based on the following: The Multi Axis Crystal Spectrometer (MACS) at the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) is a third generation cold neutron spectrometer that provides ultra high sensitivity access to dynamic correlations in condensed matter on length scales from 0.1 nm to 50 nm and energy scales from 2.2 meV to 20 meV. The project is funded jointly by the NIST Center for Neutron Research, the National Science Foundation (under DMR-0116585), and the Johns Hopkins University. One component of this spectrometer is the Cryogenic Filter Exchanger or CFX. The CFX is a device that places one of three cryogenically cooled filter materials into the incident beam to isolate the desired energy bandwidth of neutrons that reach the monochromator and eventually impinge on the sample. The choice of filter material is made remotely at the User Interface of the instrument and is chosen to meet the requirements of each experiment. The CFX is a component of the instrument that is being supplied by Johns Hopkins University (JHU) as part of JHU's commitment as a partner with the NIST Center for Neutron Research (NCNR) in developing and building the MACS spectrometer. NIST has procured the filter materials to be placed into the CFX. The original CFX device was procured by JHU using a competitive source selection process. Following execution of the contract, JHU took delivery of the CFX at the NCNR facility. However, it could not be demonstrated that the cryogenic performance of the device met specifications and could be expected to operate reliably. Because of the high-radiation operating environment and the radiation activation inherent to its service, NCNR safety policy requires that equipment demonstrate very high reliability before deployment. A plan for remediation was formed whereby JHU would deploy its own engineering/technical staff to analyze the existing CFX design, look for areas in the design where performance and/or reliability could be enhanced and carry out the design and implementation of these enhancements. The CFX was transferred from the NCNR to the mechanical high bay at the JHU Department of Physics and Astronomy Building in Baltimore. JHU contracted an engineer to do an analysis of the current design using finite element computer modeling, find opportunities for performance enhancement and perform individual simulations on each enhancement to determine its likely impact on performance. Those enhancements having a measurable, positive impact on performance were submitted to JHU as recommended design changes. While the design changes are complete and have been implemented, the extent of the testing has occurred without the actual filter elements incorporated. Results of this preliminary testing are positive and indicate that the imposed changes have had the desired effect, but the true neutronic performance of the device can only be ascertained with the filter elements in place during testing. This would entail designing a large "collet" to hold the filter element(s) that ensures good thermal contact in both the warm and cooled condition and thus allows for differential thermal expansion/contraction. The design of the collet will be unique for each material due to differences in the coefficient of thermal expansion. While the design of the CFX allows for the inclusion of three filter elements, only two filters will be deployed in the CFX. These are the pyrolytic graphite and beryllium elements. The pyrolytic graphite was purchased by NIST at a cost of $279,400.00 (contract SB1341-07-SU-0387). The beryllium was also purchased by NIST at a cost of $39,134.00 (contract SB1341-09-SU-0286). Currently, JHU has exhausted its funding for this project and work has ceased with the following still needed before integration into the MACS spectrometer: 1. A control system that allows the choice of filtering to be controlled from the instrument console and can be integrated into the existing instrument control environment. 2. Making the CFX radiation resistant or "rad hard" by replacing elastomeric components (or components having elastomeric parts) with equivalent parts using all metal construction 3. Adding sensors and providing communication to the instrument console for monitoring temperatures as close to the filters as possible 4. Providing the ability to isolate the filter vacuum vessel from the pumping station to allow vacuum pump maintenance or vacuum pump replacement without losing the filter insulating vacuum 5. Designing and procuring filter "collets" and install pyrolytic graphite and beryllium filter elements 6. Operating the CFX in operational configuration with filters installed to verify and baseline cryogenic performance 7. Delivering the CFX to NIST taking all necessary precautions to minimize the risk of damage Because of its uniqueness and mechanical complexity, NIST requires the services of JHU to perform these tasks. All of the tasks listed above represent "follow-on" work to the progress that JHU has made in making the CFX perform to the required specifications at a reliability level that minimizes the risk for personal radiation exposure that would ensue in the event of a mechanical malfunction. The engineering and technical staff of the IDG possesses a unique familiarity and knowledge of the CFX in its current state. This, coupled with the fact that the CFX currently resides in a state of partial disassembly in the mechanical engineering high bay assembly area, mean that the JHU-IDG could be deployed to this effort almost instantaneously. The redeployment and operation of the MACS Spectrometer at its new location at BT-9 is a required milestone for establishing completion of the NCNR Expansion Project that is part of President Bush's Competitiveness Initiative and must be accomplished by the end of December 2012. The schedule requires that the CFX arrive at the NCNR in an installable state in November 2011. Because of the serial nature of the MACS instrument installation, any delay in this delivery causes a delay in the entire instrument and jeopardizes meeting this milestone deadline. The CFX is a delicate piece of equipment, movement of the equipment will increase risk of damage. By awarding the remainder of the work to JHU-IDG, the work will be completed at the current location and will require only one trip from Baltimore to the NCNR. Because of the added cost, increased performance risk, increased schedule risk and higher likelihood of damage during transport. NIST intends to procure on a sole source basis to JHU-IDG for the MACS CFX Control System and Hardware Completion. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 541711, and the size standard is 500 employees. No solicitation package will be issued. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotations; however, interested persons may identify their interest and capability to respond to this requirement. The Government will consider responses received by 3:00 p.m. (EST) on August 8, 2011. Inquiries will only be accepted via email to Lynda.Roark@nist.gov. No telephone requests will be honored. A determination by the Government not to compete the proposed acquisition based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement in the future.
 

Web Link

FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOC/NIST/AcAsD/NB6100301104193/listing.html)
 

Place of Performance

Address: 100 BUREAU DRIVE, GAITHERSBURG, Maryland, 20899, United States

Zip Code: 20899
 

Record

SN02504660-W 20110722/110721002616-d18b8345c662b74d2419c636f2078887 (fbodaily.com)
 

Source

FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)

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