MODIFICATION
13 -- Insensitive RDX - (IRDX)
- Notice Date
- 8/1/2003
- Notice Type
- Modification
- Contracting Office
- US Army Operations Support Command, ATTN: AMSOS-CCA, Rock Island, IL 61299-5000
- ZIP Code
- 61299-5000
- Solicitation Number
- DAAA09-03-R-0177
- Response Due
- 8/29/2003
- Archive Date
- 10/28/2003
- Point of Contact
- DARLA MILLS, (309)782-3316
- E-Mail Address
-
Email your questions to US Army Operations Support Command
(millsd@osc.army.mil)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- NA The purpose of this Sources Sought/Market Research is to identify potential sources capable of manufacturing and supplying Insensitive-RDX (IRDX) to the United States Government, specifically the Department of the Army. Please appropriately and precisely mark all specific proprietary information to be submitted in response to this market research relative to this item, as it will be safeguarded. If you are a foreign country firm and have certain data that can only be released via a Country-to-Country Data Exchange Agreement, please state specifically the precise data involved and what appropriate measures are required to facilitate release; please submit all other releasable data immediately. In any response to be submitted in response to this notification, at a minimum, the following material information is desired: 1. Do you have production capability of both RDX (regular RDX) and IRDX (insensitive-RDX)? If so, do you use separate production lines or the same production line? 2. Do you use a single process, Woolwich, Bachman or some other proprietary process, to produce these two materials? 3. Have you produced IRDX from material synthesized by the Bachman process or any other process that results in a substantial HMX impurity content? If your answer is -yes-, does the product resulting from the synthesis steps need any special treatment? 4. What are your criteria for defining IRDX, as distinct from RDX? What are the typical HMX contents in the RDX and IRDX? 5. How many classes (i.e. materials with different particle size distributions) of RDX and IRDX do you sell? 6. Provide the typical particle size distributions for representative batches for each class of RDX and IRDX. 7. How is each of these distributions achieved: directly from crystallization? Grinding of large particles? Other? Provide the basic material specification for your RDX and IRDX. It is suggested that the material specification include, but not be limi ted to, the following information: a) Safety tests-sensitivity to drop weight impact, friction, and electrostatic discharge; and vacuum thermal stability, b) Acidity, c) Melting point, d) Insoluble particles on U.S. No. 60 sieve, e) Total acetone insoluble material weight percent, f) Inorganic insoluble weight percent, g) HMX content, h) Crystal particle size distribution. 8. Provide photomicrographs of Class 1 and Class 5 RDX and IRDX. The granulation requirements for U.S. Class 1 and Class 5 RDX are shown below: U.S. Std Sieve No. (Opening) Class1 spec. % Pass thru 20 (0.84 mm) 98+2 50 (0.29mm) 90+10 100 (0.149mm) 60+30 200 (0.074mm) 25+20 U.S. Std Sieve No. Class 5 spec. % Pass thru 325 (0.044mm) 97 (min) 9. What unique property (or properties) or special test (or tests) that is (are) performed on the crystalline nitramine (and not on a formulation) do you use to distinguish the IRDX from the RDX? This test / property need not to be in the above list. Des cribe the unique test (or tests) or the method (or methods) that you use to determine the unique property (or properties). 10. What test (or tests) and other quality assurance check (or checks) are used to determine a satisfactory IRDX and RDX production lot? The following formulation process data is also required: 11. Provide shock sensitivity test data of formulations using RDX and IRDX. Formulations should not be limited to cast-cured explosive formulations. NOL Large Scale Gap Test, (NOL LSGT) data are preferred. See MIL-STD-1751A [Procedure 1041], and/or STA NAG 4170 per STANAG 4488, and AOP-7 Edition 2, and United Nations(UN)--Recommendations on the Transport of Dangerous Goods, Manual of Tests and Criteria--. Other data from other gap tests are also acceptable, but must be accompanied by calibration curves relating input shock strength to transmitted shock strength, as a function of gap length. Data on well-known, well characterized reference formulations should also be included. If non-U.S. formulations are used, please provide general information on the binder system, solid loading weight percent, ratio between Class1 and Class 5 particles (if used), and processing. 12. Have you assessed the shock sensitivity of any formulations made with IRDX as part of an aging study? If the answer is yes, please provide aging study data. 13. How many formulations have you tested using IRDX? 14. Have you assessed the contribution to insensitivity of IRDX in pressed formulations, melt-cast formulations, and cast-cured formulations? In any of these cases, do you change the formulation process when IRDX is used? 15. Have you conducted Insensitive Munitions tests on an IRDX formulation-filled item (or items)? If yes, please provide the item description, formulation used, and test results. See MIL-STD-2105B; see also STANAG 4439 (Insensitive Munitions), STANAG 424 0 Liquid Fuel/External Fire (also known as Fast Cook-Off), STANAG 4241 Bullet Impact, STANAG 4382 Slow Heating (also known as Slow Cook-Off), STANAG 4396 Sympathetic Reaction (also known as Sympathetic Detonation), and STANAG 4496 Fragment Impact. Provide the following RDX and IRDX production information: 16. What is your yearly production in RDX and IRDX? 17. What kind of lead-time do you need to double your current production? 18. Where is (or are) your production facility (or facilities) located? Business information is also required for this sources sought inquiry: 19. What would you charge per pound or per kilogram for RDX and IRDX material (by classes - i.e. materials with different particle size distributions) produced at your production facility / facilities? 20. What warranties / guarantees are you offering with respect to the RDX and IRDX material? 21. Are there any -suitability for use- restrictions / limitations associated with your IRDX material (such as good only for pressed formulations, melt-cast formulations, and cast-cured formulations)? Will the IRDX material used in certain formulations be come more sensitive (revert) with aging? Provide specific details. 22. If your process has been used only on RDX with little or no HMX (as from the Woolwich process), can your IRDX production process be readily adapted for a Bachman process facility? What would be the one-time costs associated with this? What other charges (such as license fee, royalty) would there be? 23. If you are a foreign firm: Have you exported this technology (process) outside of your country? Do you foresee any problems or limitations for exporting to the U.S.? If yes, please provide specifics including proposed solutions to the problem(s) and/ or limitation(s). Respondents to the market survey must have available the facilities and skills required to design, manufacture, and prove-out IRDX. Interested firms who are capable of manufacturing and supplying IRDX are encouraged to submit the information described abo ve to the cognizant Contracting Officer: HQ, Joint Munitions Command, ATTN: AMSJM-CCA-R/Sean O'Reilly, 1 Rock Island Arsenal, Rock Island, IL 61299-6000. Please respond NO LATER THAN 29 August 2003 and identify IRDX SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE as the subject of the response. This notification represents a Market Research/Sources Sought Notice only and shall not be construed as a Request for Proposal or as an obligation on the part of the United States Government. The United States Government does not intend to award a contract on the basis of any response to this market research or otherwise pay for information solicited herein.
- Place of Performance
- Address: US Army Operations Support Command ATTN: AMSOS-CCA-R, Rock Island IL
- Zip Code: 61299-6000
- Country: US
- Zip Code: 61299-6000
- Record
- SN00390023-W 20030803/030801213759 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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