SOLICITATION NOTICE
66 -- Rheometer
- Notice Date
- 6/8/2010
- Notice Type
- Combined Synopsis/Solicitation
- NAICS
- 334516
— Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, South Atlantic Area, Area Office, 950 College Station Rd., Athens, Georgia, 30605, United States
- ZIP Code
- 30605
- Solicitation Number
- RFQ-006-43YK-10
- Point of Contact
- Kelly L. Bero, Phone: 706-546-3025
- E-Mail Address
-
kelly.bero@ars.usda.gov
(kelly.bero@ars.usda.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for a commercial item prepared in accordance with the format in FAR Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotations are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. The solicitation number RFQ-006-43YK-10 is issued as a request for quotations and incorporates provisions and clauses that are in effect through FAC 2005-40. The NAICS code applicable to this acquisition is 334516. This procurement is unrestricted. USDA ARS has a requirement for an instrument to measure the flow properties or rheology of a liquid dispersion, suspension, or other semi-solid material. These measurements are important for degradation studies and the development of stable feed additives and formulations. The appropriate instrument should be a controlled stress instrument with the following capabilities: General Specifications Combined motor and transducer rheometer should incorporate a magnetic levitation thrust bearing, as compared to traditional air or mechanical bearings, to minimize residual friction for accurate torques controlled down to 0.003 microN*m. The torque motor must be a non-contact drag-cup induction design with a non-contact induction temperature sensor. The sensor provides a direct measure of the temperature of the drag cup and insures absolute torque control unaffected by temperature change in the drag cup. The rheometer must include both automatic temperature system and geometry recognition to minimize operator time and eliminate potential mistakes with configurations and test set-up. This would allow a user to quickly change between temperature devices, automatically recognize the system in use, and configure and set all relevant calibrations in the control software. All information specific to the geometry should be automatically configured into the software with appropriate parameters (type, dimension, material). The maximum torque to inertia ratio of no less than 11,000 with the ratio defined by torque in microN*m divided by inertia in microN*m*s2. The inertia of the instrument drive motor must be specified and no bigger than 19microN*m*s2. The response time of instrument in step strain must be specified and no longer than 30ms. The response time of instrument in step velocity must be specified and no longer than 7ms. The rheometer must be capable of running direct strain mode during oscillation. The rheometer must be capable of demonstrating the ability to measure viscosity of less than 1 mPa*s at a maximum motor speed of 0.05 rad/s using geometry no larger than a 40 mm cone or parallel plate. The rheometer must be able to characterize the entire spectrum of viscoelastic materials from extremely low viscosity fluids (less than 1 mPa*s) by changing the various configurations from concentric cylinder, to parallel plate, to cone and plate, to torsional clamping systems for solids. All torque specifications must be in terms of instrument torque (torque applied by the motor), not sample torque. The instrument software must report both torque applied by the motor and torque actually applied to the sample. The rheometer must have a torque range in both controlled stress and rate steady shear modes of 0.01 microNm to 200 milliNm. The rheometer must have a torque resolution of no more than 0.1 nanoN.m at a torque of 0.1 microN.m. The rheometer must have a torque range in both controlled stress and controlled strain oscillation mode (as opposed to just controlled strain mode) of 0.003 microNm to 200 milliNm. The rheometer must have an angular velocity range in controlled stress mode of 0 to 300 rad/s. The rheometer must have an angular velocity range in controlled rate mode of 1.4x10-9 to 300 rad/s. The rheometer must have a frequency range of in oscillation mode of 1.2E-7 to 100 Hz (7.5E-7 to 628 rad/s). The displacement resolution of the rheometer should be no more than 25 nrad. The rheometer must be capable of operating in the following modes: 1) Oscillation Mode Tests: i. Torque/Stress sweep (linear or log) at single frequency ii. Frequency sweep (linear or log) at single torque iii. Frequency sweep (linear or log) at single strain iv. Strain/angular displacement sweep (linear or log) at single frequency v. Temperature sweep at single frequency/torque vi. Superimposed stress oscillation and steady shear vii. Superimposed strain oscillation and steady shear viii. Multiple simultaneous frequencies superimposed on above modes 2) Flow Mode Tests: i. Controlled stress or torque sweeps. ii. Controlled rate (1/s) or speed (rad/s) sweeps. iii. Stress stepped flow. iv. Equilibrium stress stepped flow (so material has time to respond to each level of stress). v. Temperature sweeps at constant stress or rate. vi. Squeeze flow and pull off. 3) Creep Mode Tests: i. Constant stress creep and recovery. ii. Automatic sensing of steady state during creep test. 4) Stress relaxation 5)The rheometer must be capable of running any of the available tests described above in one mixed procedure. In addition, while running the procedure, succeeding steps can be adapted or new steps added. The rheometer must correct for residual bearing friction. The rheometer must allow for motor and geometry inertia correction in both flow and oscillation mode, with the actual inertia measured by the instrument The rheometer must automatically zero the gap. The rheometer must provide for genuine normal force measurement from 0.005 to 50 N using a high sensitivity load cell. The rheometer must allow for the gap to be closed in the following ways: Standard, user defined velocity; user defined exponential decay, and normal force. The speed of gap closure is continuously variable. During temperature sweeps or ramps, the gap must automatically adjust for thermal expansion/contraction of the measurement plates by actual movement of the geometry. During any test the normal force on the sample [compression or tension] can be kept within defined limits. In addition during temperature sweeps or ramps the gap must automatically adjust for thermal expansion/contraction of the measurement plates by actual movement of the geometry as long as the NF control limits are not violated. Software gap correction for parallel plates should be invoked if the limits have been reached. The rheometer system must display the oscillation waveforms real-time and store the waveform for each data point onto disk. The waveform should be viewable in either a graphical or tabular form in the analysis package in order to provide an indication of the amount of noise, slip, or inertial correction for each point. The instrument software must report raw phase (sample + instrument) in oscillation experiments so the amount of instrument inertia correction applied during the measurement can be quantified. The instrument must not "clamp" the phase angle to assumed theoretical values of between 0 and 90 degrees. Rheometer must include a local keypad on the front of the rheometer that allows for the rheometer measuring head to be raised and lowered and for the gap to be zeroed as well as for the measurement to be started/stopped. Rheometer must include an electronic bearing lock that is automatically released at the start of an experiment, not a hardware lock that must be manually removed before a test is started. Main rheometer electronics and power supply must be housed in a separate unit to minimize the effects of vibration and heat. Rheometer should have two radial bearings for axial rigidity. Measuring System Specifications Standard parallel plate and cone and plate measuring systems used with the Peltier plate must come in a variety of materials including aluminum, stainless steel, and titanium. The torsional clamping fixtures must support rectangular shapes with a length up to 50 mm, thickness to 5 mm. Concentric cylinder measuring systems available must include DIN, recessed, vaned, Grooved and double gap. Du Nouy ring option must be available for interfacial rheology. Software Specifications Control and data analysis software must conform to industry standard Microsoft Windows operating system. The software must offer ability to automatically update both instrument software and firmware through the Internet using an update routine. The software must be able to automatically look for updates and inform user when available. The software must include image capture and streaming video capability that can be interfaced with a camera through computer USB connection. Ability to run rheometer and perform other tasks simultaneously such as data analysis, Microsoft Word, or Microsoft Excel. Software must operate on same controller as thermal analysis modules. Ability to cut data graphs and tables to Clipboard and paste directly into third party Windows software such as Excel or Word. The data analysis package must have the ability to run on any computer without the use of a hardware key. System must include software that allows for development of custom "scripts" to automate running a specific experiment or series of experiments, and data analysis. Ability to use the following models to predict material behavior: a. Flow: Newtonian, Casson, Bingham, Herschel-Buckley, Power Law, Sisko, Cross, Williamson, Ellis, Carreau, Best fit Polynomial. b. Creep: discrete retardation spectrum, Polynomial. c. Oscillation: Discrete and continuous relaxation spectrum, Spriggs, Oldroyd, Polynomial, Time Temperature Superposition with WLF and Arrhenius models, and Coz-Merz d. Stress relaxation: Discrete and continuous relaxation spectrum e. User defined model Software must have capability to calculate Mw using the equation Mw = Ko x where K and x are provided in a polymer library. Software must be upgradeable to include transformation software to provide interconversion of master curves. Time/Temp Superposition capability must be built into the software package and not a third party program. All raw data or instrument parameters must be accessible. The government anticipates award of a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the specifications will be most advantageous to the government. PAYMENT: Any award made under this solicitation is subject to 31 CFR Part 208 which requires all payments made by the government to be made by electronic funds transfer. Please note on your proposal if you will accept a government purchase (VISA) card. This solicitation incorporates the following FAR clauses, provisions and addendums: 52-212-1 Instructions to Offerors-Commercial Item; 52.212-3 Offeror Representations and Certifications-Commercial Items - annual representations and certifications are required. Offers shall include a statement as follows on their offer: the offeror verifies by submission of this offer that the representations and certifications currently posted electronically at http://orca.bpn.gov have been entered or updated in the last 12 months, are current, accurate, complete, and applicable to this solicitation (including the business size standard applicable to the NAICS code referenced for this solicitation), as of the date of this offer and are incorporated in this offer by reference, except for paragraphs ______________; 52.212-4 Contract Terms and Conditions-Commercial Items; 52.212-5 Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statues or Executive Orders-Commercial Items. In paragraph B of 52.212-5, the following apply: 52.219-28, 52.222-3, 52.222-19, 52.222-21, 52.222-26, 52.222-36, 52.225-3, 52.225-13, and 52.225-33. In the event the vendor will accept payment via the Government Purchase Card (VISA), the vendor shall annotate on its offer that it will accept the purchase card, and clause 52.232-33 will be superseded by clause 52.232-36. All sources wishing to provide a quotation must respond by 5:00 PM, June 30, 2010. Quotations should be addressed to USDA, ARS, LSO, 950 College Station Rd, Athens, GA 30605. POC is Kelly Bero, Purchasing Agent, 706/546-3025. Faxed or emailed responses are acceptable. All responses will be evaluated to determine the equipment's capability to meet the above requirements. The Government shall award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsive/responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government per FAR 13.106-2. The anticipated award date is July 7, 2010. All responsible sources may submit a quotation which shall be considered by the agency.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/USDA/ARS/SAA-GA-A/RFQ-006-43YK-10/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: 950 College Station Rd., Athens, Georgia, 30605, United States
- Zip Code: 30605
- Zip Code: 30605
- Record
- SN02170845-W 20100610/100608234624-b82ebacbc7f443165431c63fe979a533 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
| FSG Index | This Issue's Index | Today's FBO Daily Index Page |