SPECIAL NOTICE
66 -- NOTICE OF INTENT
- Notice Date
- 7/7/2016
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- NAICS
- 333249
— Other Industrial Machinery Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Acquisition Management Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Building 301, Room B130, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 20899-1410, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20899-1410
- Solicitation Number
- AMD-NOI-04689
- Archive Date
- 8/6/2016
- Point of Contact
- Lynda M Roark, Phone: 3019753725, Patrick K Staines, Phone: (301)975-6335
- E-Mail Address
-
Lynda.Roark@nist.gov, patrick.staines@nist.gov
(Lynda.Roark@nist.gov, patrick.staines@nist.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- The Office of Acquisition and Agreement Management (OAAM), of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), on behalf of the NIST Laboratories, intends to negotiate on a sole-source basis with Applied Energy Systems (AES), Inc. under the authority of FAR Part 13.106-1(b), for a Safety Gas Cabinet. The atom based metrology laboratory in PML currently uses sub-atmospheric phosphine gas sources in the process of fabricating atomically precise electronic devices. As a necessary safety precaution, the gas cylinder is kept in an AES safety cabinet with a fully automated gas delivery system, configured to deliver low doses of phosphine gas to the room temperature scanning tunneling microscope (STM) that is used for device fabrication. A new low temperature STM will be brought on-line in August and will also require phosphine dosing capabilities. It is therefore necessary to purchase an additional gas cabinet with fully automated gas delivery system. Given that the new low temperature STM and its associated gas delivery setup will be an independent system from the previous, there are no direct compatibility issues associated with using a different manufacturer's cabinet and delivery system. However, there are several key reasons as to why the additional gas cabinet must be sole sourced to AES for a Safety Gas Cabinet. 1) Researchers in the atom based metrology lab will be using the new gas cabinet / delivery system for the same kind of task as the current AES cabinet / delivery system is used. If the new system were purchased from a different company, a new set of protocols and standard operating procedures would need to be developed to account for differences in the new system (since the current SOPs are specific to our AES cabinet). Since both systems will be in use concurrently, this means that under such a scenario, researchers who work with both systems would be required to switch between protocols frequently. Having two different sets of procedures for the same task is inherently confusing and likely to cause mistakes in operation. Given the potential risks (the worst case scenario being death) of phosphine, a toxic gas, these kinds of mistakes must be avoided. In particular, phosphine gas is highly toxic, corrosive, reactive, and pyrophoric, representing both a potential fire hazard as well as a direct health hazard. 2) As an additional safety precaution, phosphine gas cylinder exchange is performed by trained personal from the CNST Nanofab whose training is specific to an AES gas cabinet / delivery system owned by the CNST Nanofab. Procedures for changing a gas cylinder are specific to the gas cabinet / delivery system; the details of purging gas lines in the cabinet, of opening and closing appropriate valves, and what aspects of those procedures are automated and how to initiate those automated processes are generally not the same from one manufacturer to another. Therefore an employee trained in performing cylinder exchange for an AES system would not be able to directly apply their training to one built by a different manufacturer. 3) Furthermore, two AES safety cabinets and phosphine gas delivery systems have already gone through all of the necessary hazard reviews and been approved for operation. It is therefore expected that this new system will be brought online very quickly upon arrival as it will be able to receive safety approval, being nearly identical to the existing setups. A safety cabinet / delivery system from another manufacturer would not have this benefit, and would cause a significant delay in operation while preparing for and then awaiting hazard review; this would result in a delay in our mission and project outcome. Preparation for hazard review would also require PML to spend significant additional time developing new SOPs and any other necessary documentation. As a matter of proper safe work practices it is therefore necessary to purchase the new gas cabinet / delivery system from AES. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition 333249 with a size standard of 500 employees. 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 be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. No solicitation package will be issued. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotations. However, responses received by July 22, 2016 will be considered by the Government.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOC/NIST/AcAsD/AMD-NOI-04689/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: 100 Bureau Drive, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 20899, United States
- Zip Code: 20899
- Zip Code: 20899
- Record
- SN04174291-W 20160709/160707235314-1d0cd5e07b7e6d5d645bc5be63b2ee40 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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