Helium fill service

FBO ANNOUNCEMENT: PRESOLICITATION NOTICE, NOTICE OF INTENT

ACTION CODE: SPECIAL NOTICE

SUBJECT: Helium fill service

SOLICITATION NUMBER: NB647000-23-02175

RESPONSE DATE: 08/17/2023

DESCRIPTION:

The National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Applied Chemicals and Materials Division (ACMD) owns a Buker AV600 NMR spectrometer (serial number 10026169). The spectrometer includes a liquid-helium-cooled, 14.1 Tesla, superconducting magnet (600/54 US PLUS LH D355).

For the NMR spectrometer to remain operational, the magnet must be kept at liquid helium temperatures, which requires that we fill the helium reservoir about 3 times a year. For each fill, we use the contents of a 100 L transport dewar (about 80 liters of liquid helium go into the NMR cryostat and about 20 L are lost to boiloff or remain in the dewar).

The NMR spectrometer is critical equipment for the IMS project on electric-acoustic spectrometry, for our collaborative VLE measurements with Group 8 and Colorado State University, for our collaborative Direct Air Capture (of CO2) project with other staff, for our collaboration on diffusion measurements with Div642, and for multiple other Group 7 projects. The purpose of this procurement is to ensure the aforementioned NMR spectrometer continues operating in order to support the various projects that depend on it.

Sole Source justification is based on the following:

The NMR is currently under a site wide Bruker maintenance agreement that precludes any services being performed by 3rd party technicians.  In the event of another party providing any helium supply services to this equipment which causes damage, all the terms of the existing maintenance agreement are voided.   This contract action is slated to include two additional option years of service included.

NAICS code for this requirement will be 325120 – Industrial Gas Manufacturing with a small business size of 1000 employees.

No solicitation package will be issued. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotations; however, interested parties who regard themselves as capable of fulfilling these requirements are invited to submit responses to the Government for consideration.  

Inquiry POCs

Erik.Fycklund@nist.gov    Primary

Donald.Graham@nist.gov Secondary

National Institutes of Standards and Technologies NIST

Acquisition Management Division (AMD)

100 Bureau Dr.   Mail Stop 1640

Gaithersburg, MD. 20899-1640