SOURCES SOUGHT
66 -- In-House & Specialty Gases and Tracking System
- Notice Date
- 3/12/2010
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 325120
— Industrial Gas Manufacturing
- 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
- AMD-10-SS70
- Archive Date
- 4/10/2010
- Point of Contact
- Carol A. Wood, Phone: 301-975-8172, Carol A. Wood, Phone: 301-975-8172
- E-Mail Address
-
carol.wood@nist.gov, carol.wood@nist.gov
(carol.wood@nist.gov, carol.wood@nist.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This is a SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE for market research purposes. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Administrative Services Division provides bottled gas services for the NIST Gaithersburg Campus. This service includes ordering of in-house gases, ordering of specialty gases, delivery and pick up of bottles to remote buildings, and management, repair and maintenance of the bottles. NIST seeks information on commercial vendors capable of providing all of the following: -Provide all in-house and specialty gases; -Provide all maintenance, repair and upgrades to the NIST owned bottles. It is NIST’s intention to fully meet and/or exceed the Compressed Gas Association Standards for bottle gases and improve the safe handling and use of the bottles.; -Supply Contractor-owned bottles for specialty gases; -Manage and operate the use of all these bottles on the NIST campus via a Contractor-provided bottled gas tracking system that will allow NIST to track the current location of all bottles (NIST-owned and Contractor -owned) that are on the NIST campus or off-site to be repaired/service or refilled; -To improve the NIST Standards for bottle gases. NIST intends to have each bottle meet set performance requirements that will insure a high level of safety for NIST cylinders as well as improved quality of the product delivered in the bottle. After the results of this market research are obtained and analyzed and specifications are developed for this requirement, NIST may conduct a competitive procurement and subsequently award a Purchase Order. If at least two qualified small business manufacturers are identified during this market research stage, then any competitive procurement that resulted would be conducted as a small business set-aside. In-House Gases In house gases are pure analytical gases that NIST stocks in a centralized store room on the NIST Gaithersburg Campus. Below is a chart of these gases and the current number of filled cylinders. DESCRIPTION FILL BALANCE Nitrogen S-D 220 Cu. Ft.80.00 P-10, Arg-90 Meth-1012.00 Forming 95% N2/5% H2 9.00 Helium 200 Cu Ft Grade A40.00 Oxygen 220 Cu Ft46.00 Tech CO2 50 Lbs19.00 Hydrogen 220 Cu Ft16.00 Acetylene 10 Cu Ft 1.00 Acetylene 40 Cu Ft 4.00 Acetylene 225 Cu Ft52.00 Air Breathing 220 Cu Ft15.00 Argon 220 Cu Ft50.00 TOTAL355.00 Specialty Gases Specialty gases are those gases that NIST does not have a high demand to stock for research. They are considered to be gases that may have a unique mix requirement for a one time specific research application. These gases must be provided in Contractor-owned bottles that meet the safety requirements below. The required gas will vary by lab specific needs. The labs provide the specific mixture that meets the need of the researcher. Sample specialty gases are: •22% Carbon Dioxide, Balance Nitrogen •49 % Oxygen / Balance Helium •9 PPM n-DECANE BALANCE NITROGEN •2.0-K Methane •5 PPM SULFUR HEXAFLUORIDE •Ultra High Purity Krypton Maintenance and Repair of Cylinders Maintenance and repair of cylinders must be performed as required to keep the cylinders to new service standards as described below. Maintenance and repairs shall include: •Replacement of Safety cap; •Replacement of valve assembly; •Grit Blast, Prime and Repaint Cylinder with secondary color coding; •Internally clean, inspect and hydrostatic test and recertify cylinder; • Service and reinstall valve assembly; •Stamp a new certification test date on cylinder neck; •Disposal of non-repairable bottles. Cylinder Service Upgrades NIST currently owns 373 empty cylinders, 204 of which are certified to be refilled with any of the listed in-house gases. The current NIST bottle inventory needs to be retrofitted to a new safety standard. This is intended to improve their safe handling and use. All improvements must meet or exceed the Compressed Gas Association and OSHA guidance for the safe use and handling of bottled gases. •Fixed Open Safety Cap – oShall be open at all times during transport and use and not removable. oShall protect valve from rupture, shock, drops and rough handling. oShall have an easy grip top to allow for safe handling while moving the cylinder from one location to another. •Valve Replacement oIntegrated High Pressure Gauge to allow for easy monitoring of gas volume in the cylinder. oGauge shall allow you to see bottle contents without affixing a secondary regulator or gauge to the bottle. oMain valve shall be of a single motion type that allows for quick shut off with minimal effort in case of emergency. It shall be easily visible to determine if tank valve is open or closed. oHas a built in flow restrictor that prevents rapid release in case of valve accidental opening or damage. oMaintains a minimal residual pressure on bottle to insure quality of gas by avoiding the intrusion from atmospheric contaminants. •Grit Blast bottles, Prime and Paint with base color and color code neck for type of gas as approved by NIST. •Hydrostatic Pressure test bottle to ASTM pressure vessel testing requirements as required by CGA. This shall include de-valving, indenting new test date, drying the interior and setting new valves. • Purge and clean bottle for new intended service per color code listed above. Bottled Gas Tracking System The system must monitor all NIST-owned and Contractor-owned bottles and NIST-owned dewars currently in-service at NIST. The system must have the capability to track in-house and specialty gas bottles as referenced herein. In addition, NIST has a requirement to track all NIST-owned dewars (filling of dewars is not a part of this requirement). The Contractor shall provide an on-site subject matter expert, on an as needed basis, to run and maintain the system. The system must pass an IT Certification and Accreditation review through NIST and must be capable of generating a report of billing information as well as a plain text ASCII file compatible with the NIST financial system. Hand-held scanners must be provided by the Contractor to scan bar codes during delivery. The system must be a web based system that monitors at a minimum: •Bar Coded bottle number •Location (NIST, building and room or vendor location) •Person assigned to (researcher, storeroom, vendor) •Type of product •Date inspected and tested •Date due for re-certification •Date of delivery to NIST/Vendor/Researcher •Date returned to vendor •Date returned to storeroom •Date sent out for service/refill NIST is seeking responses from all responsible sources, including large, foreign, and small businesses. Small businesses are defined under the associated NAICS code for this effort, 325120 Industrial Gas Manufacturing, as those domestic sources having 1,000 employees or less. Please include your company’s size classification in any response to this notice. Companies that can perform all of the above requirements are requested to email a detailed report describing their abilities to carol.wood@nist.gov no later than the response date for this sources sought notice. The report should explain all capabilities, identify gases that can be delivered, provide a description of the tracking system utilized by the Contractor, discuss required upgrades, and any other information relevant to your products and/or capabilities. Also, the following information is requested to be provided as part of the response to this sources sought notice: 1. Name and business size of the company proposing to perform the work; 2. If subcontractors or distributors would be utilized, the name of company(ies), and a point of contact for the company (name, phone number, fax number and email address); 3. Indication of number of days, after receipt of order that is typical for delivery of in-house and specialty gases; 4. Indication of whether any products and/or services are currently on one or more GSA Federal Supply Schedule contracts and, if so, the GSA FSS contract number(s); 5. Any other relevant information that is not listed above which the Government should consider in finalizing its market research. All documentation must be sent to Carol A. Wood, Contract Specialist, at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Acquisition Management Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 1640, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1640. E-mail address: CAROL.WOOD@NIST.GOV. Submission must be received not later than 3:00 PM local time on Friday, March 26, 2010.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOC/NIST/AcAsD/AMD-10-SS70/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: NIST, 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 20899, United States
- Zip Code: 20899
- Zip Code: 20899
- Record
- SN02090789-W 20100314/100312235220-c4054c224925540035a4f9793eaebb3b (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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