DOC; Mountain Administrative Support Center; Acquisition Management Division; 325 Broadway MC3; Boulder, CO

41 -- DEDICATED AIR CLEANING AND COOLING SYSTEM SOL 848800027BJ DUE 051398 POC BJ Roberts, (303)497-3799, FAX (303)497-3163 E-MAIL: NOAA; MASC Acquisitions Management, Brenda.S.Summers@noaa.gov. Dedicated Air Cleaning and Cooling System consisting of: York Air Handling Unit (HVAC), Variable frequency Drives (VfD), Associated Duct Distribution Systems and Installation of above equipment. S1B75 is being renovated to become an optics lab. Previously it was a computer machine room, which had its own air conditioning. Currently it has no air conditioning. There are three requirements for the air handling system to make this room into a state-of-the-art optics lab: i) cleanliness, ii) temperature stability and iii) heat load. Cleanliness is a requirement for two reasons, to reduce fluctuations in the optical experiments due to dust falling through the laser beams and to keep the optics clean. Note that the high quality mirrors used in these experiments cost $100 to $500 apiece and typical 10-20 are used in an experiment. Dust can cause damage directly due to absorbing energy from the laser beams and indirectly due to increased risk of damage during the handling necessary for the constant cleaning that results from dust collecting on them. To obtain this cleanliness, a set of HEPA filters on the outlet vents of the air handling system is required. This will only work if the room has its own air handler such that most of the air is recycled. In addition it is advantageous to have a slight over pressure to keep dirt out of the room. The system to be installed will include HEPA filters and has sufficiently high flow to keep the air in the room clean to an equivalent of a class 10,000 clean room or better. It will also provide a slight overpressure. This lab will be used for an ultrafast optical system that requires matching of two optical path lengths to an accuracy of a few microns. The total path length is approximately 2 meters. While an active feed back control is used to match these lengths, it still requires a constant temperature. If the temperature fluctuates by more than a few degrees, the resulting thermal expansion will exceed the capability of the feedback control to compensate. The existing building air conditioning does not provide sufficient temperature stability during spring and fall as it can exclusively heat or cool, and relies on the outside air temperature being sufficiently low or high (respectively) to maintain a constant temperature. This building system fails when the outside temperature changes rapidly or is unseasonal. The system to be installed will have its own condensers so that it can provide cooling year round independent of the outside temperature. This will provide the necessary temperature stability. The lasers used as the first stage in an ultrafast system have undergone a significant advance in the last few years. This has increased their efficiency by a factor of ten and eliminated the need for an external supply of cooling water, both of which provide significant cost savings over the life of the laser. They are much more compact as well. While these new lasers are more efficient and generate much less waste heat, they do dump all of their waste heat into the room air (as opposed to into the cooling water for the older technology). This puts a much greater load on the air conditioning. Each laser can dump around 3 kilowatts of heat into the room. It is anticipated that there may eventually be four of these lasers in the room. This, in combination with the other equipment and the fact that there are building steam pipes running through the room, results in a very substantial heat load. A test of the building air conditioning last August showed that it did not have sufficient capacity to accommodate the additional load that this lab would generate. The system to be installed has sufficient capacity to accommodate this load. All technical questions should be directed to Ed Holliness (303) 492-4021. Request for the solicitation package will expire 5- 13-98. An extensive background in clean room experience is a critical element! (0113)

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