SOURCES SOUGHT
48 -- VALVES
- Notice Date
- 7/17/2012
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 332911
— Industrial Valve Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- NASA/John F. Kennedy Space Center, Procurement, Kennedy Space Center, FL 32899
- ZIP Code
- 32899
- Solicitation Number
- NNK12CZ005R
- Response Due
- 8/1/2012
- Archive Date
- 7/17/2013
- Point of Contact
- A. Zuber Christopher, Contract Specialist, Phone 321-867-2115, Fax 321-867-1166, Email Christopher.Zuber@nasa.gov
- E-Mail Address
-
A. Zuber Christopher
(Christopher.Zuber@nasa.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- NASA/KSC is hereby soliciting information about potential sources for Light-weight low-power valves for operation in a thermal vacuum chamber. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Kennedy Space Center is seeking capability statements from all interested parties, including Small, Small Disadvantaged (SDB), 8(a), Woman-owned (WOSB), Veteran Owned (VOSB), Service Disabled Veteran Owned (SD-VOSB), Historically Underutilized Business Zone (HUBZone) businesses, and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)/Minority Institutions (MI) for the purposes of determining the appropriate level of competition and/or small business subcontracting goals for light-weight low-power valves. The Government reserves the right to consider a Small, 8(a), Woman-owned (WOSB), Service Disabled Veteran (SD-VOSB), or HUBZone business set-aside based on responses hereto. 1. Background and Plan NASA/KSC is currently studying the feasibility, practicality, and cost of developing light-weight low-power valves to be utilized within the Regolith and Environment Science and Oxygen and Lunar Volatile Extraction (RESOLVE) project's Lunar Advanced Volatile Analysis (LAVA) Subsystem to make decisions regarding procurement strategies for the development of instrumentation. RESOLVE is a lunar resource prospecting payload that is in development for a launch opportunity to the Moon. 2. Technical Requirements: The valves sought in this announcement will be used to control gas flow in the LAVA fluid system composed of 1/8in and 1/16in tubing, a fluid manifold (flat surface), and tank (round surface). There are five types of applications for these valves: Electromechanical latching shutoff valve: The first type of valve will be used to electromechanically switch flow on or off using latching valves. Constant power is required to change the valve from its normal position to its actuated position and remain in the actuated position. The valve shall accommodate flow through a 1/8in line and flow rates within a range of 0 to 200 standard cubic centimeters per minute (sccm). The vendor must provide the flow characteristics of the valve. The valve will be required to be manifold-mounted (i.e., flexible mounting options) and handle pressure up to 150 psia. NASA anticipates the acquisition of twenty (20) units. Electromechanical bi-stable latching shutoff valve: The second type of valve will be used to electromechanically switch flow on or off using bi-stable latching valves. The valve will remain open or closed using no power. Power is only required to change state. The valve shall accommodate flow through a 1/8in line and flow rates within a range of 0 to 200 sccm. The vendor must provide the flow characteristics of the valve. The valve will be required to be manifold-mounted (i.e., flexible mounting options) and handle pressure up to 150 psia. NASA anticipates the acquisition of twenty (20) units. Electromechanical control valve: The third type of valve will be used to control the flow rate through the fluid system. The valve shall be in the normally-closed position and accommodate flow rates within a range of 0 to 200 sccm. The vendor must specify the flow characteristics of the valve. Operating pressures for these valves will be 0 to 150 psia. NASA anticipates the acquisition of three (3) to four (4) proportional valve units. Electronic Pressure Control (EPC) valve: The fourth type of valve will be used to regulate the pressure distributed to various fluid components between 20-50 psia. Operating pressures for these valves will be 0 to 150 psia. NASA anticipates the acquisition of three (3) EPC units. High-pressure isolation valve: The fifth type of valve will be used to isolate a gas regulator from a pressure vessel (up to 2000 psia). The valve shall be in the normally-closed position and may be a one-time operation valve. NASA anticipates the acquisition of six (6) to nine (9) units. All valves must operate using an 18-36 VDC power supply and utilize no more than 10 Watts per unit. The shutoff valves must utilize no more than 8.4 Watt-seconds per state change. The company must provide power required per actuation. All valves will have an operational range of -20 to 175 degrees Celsius in an external ambient pressure as low as 10^(-10) Torr. The mass for each valve shall not exceed 40 grams. The valve actuation time must be less than 100 milliseconds, except for the isolation valves which can have an actuation time of 500 milliseconds. Valves with internal geometry, that allows little or no dead space, where gasses can be held and are not flushed by gasses flowing through the valve, will be considered over valves that have the potential to hold gasses and contaminate subsequent operations. The gases in the fluid system will consist of either pure hydrogen or a mixture of various gases consisting mainly of hydrogen, water vapor, and low concentration of other gases such as carbon monoxide, hydrochloric acid, hydrofluoric acid, and hydrogen sulfide. All valves, except for that used just downstream of a Hydrogen cylinder, shall be limited to 100 or less hours of exposure to pure Hydrogen. The fluid system is being designed to make quantitative measurements of water; therefore, material selection for the valve seat in contact with the fluid must not absorb water, nor be a source of other volatiles (off- gassing). Also, short-duration exposure (30min) to small amounts (<1%) of hydrofluoric acid and hydrochloric acid are expected. All wetted materials shall be inert. All valves will be required to operate and maintain integrity after exposure to temperatures ranging from -30 to 200 degrees Celsius (the valves will not be required to operate under these conditions, but must survive and operate after being exposed to these temperature conditions). The valve steady-state leak rate across the valve seat for all valves shall not exceed 0.01 sccm of Helium when the valve experiences its maximum pressure. The steady-state leak rate to outside environment shall not exceed 0.01 sccm when the system is pressurized to 20 psia of Helium. The vendor must specify the actual leak rates. The desired mean-time between failures is estimated to be 5,000 hours with a minimum lifetime of 10,000 hours or 2,000 cycles, whichever is greater. The vendor shall indicate any flight heritage or if any flight qualification testing has been performed. 3. Additional Information a. Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) products are desired with associated cost per item to establish a reasonable target cost for developing and qualifying these components that meets the requirements defined. Please advise if the requirement is considered to be a commercial or commercial-type product. A commercial item is defined in FAR 2.101. If modified COTS items can be designed to meet these requirements, please include the following: i. Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) cost estimate for Developmental units with non- recurring engineering (NRE). ii. Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) cost estimate of subsequent production units. iii. Estimated delivery/lead time for the first half of the required units. iv. Estimated delivery/lead time for the remaining half of the required production units. RFI Questions: NASA is requesting responses to the following questions: Valve Capabilities: 1. Would your organization be interested in developing valves for NASA missions? 2. What experience with valves do you have? (a) Airborne or space flight applications (b) Reliability requirements and performance of current products; (c) Current valve use/applications; brief description of valve requirements including operational life (d) Years of valve manufacturing and production experience (e) What related heritage programs have you previously worked on, and at what scope (Prime Supplier, subcontractor, etc)? 3. From your perspective, what will be the major technical risks in developing valve that meet the specifications provided? Questions and comments are welcomed. All questions regarding and correspondence associated with this RFI should be conducted by email. The NAICS code for this requirement is 332911 with a size standard of 500 employees. The government does intend to acquire a commercial item using FAR Part 12. No solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. If a solicitation is released it will be synopsized in FedBizOpps and on the NASA Acquisition Internet Service. It is the potential offerors responsibility to monitor these sites for the release of any solicitation or synopsis. Interested offerors/vendors having the required specialized capabilities to meet the above requirement should submit a capability statement of five (5) pages or less indicating the ability to perform all aspects of the effort described herein. Respondents are required to address the following technical specifications for their respective valve designs. Responses must have classified and proprietary information properly marked. For planning purposes, we are requesting that the responses to this RFI include the following information at a minimum: Brief description of company capabilities, applicable facilities, and experience designing valves. Description of previous flight heritage and valve concept using the stated specifications as the basis Notional schedule for development, testing and qualification through delivery based on your approach, technology maturity and understanding of the risks. All qualification units by May 2013 and all flight units by 2014. Description of key technical, schedule, and cost drivers and options to mitigate risks and/or reduce schedule To facilitate a prompt review by the NASA team, a one (1) page summary shall be included with your capability statement(s), identifying the following information: 1.Company name and address. 2. Contractor size/type classification (Large, Small, Small Disadvantaged 8(a), Woman-Owned, Veteran-Owned, Service Disabled Veteran and HUBZone). 3. Company size (number of employees). 4. Average annual revenue for the past three (3) years. 5. Affiliate information (as applicable) including, parent company, joint venture partners, prime contractor (if potential sub) or subcontractors (if potential prime), point of contact name, position, address and phone number. 6. Company specific capabilities that are relevant to the requirements listed above. It is not sufficient to provide only general brochures or generic information. Copies of your capability statement(s) may be made available to prospective offerors in the future. Therefore, it should not contain company-sensitive information, This synopsis is for information and planning purposes and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government nor will the Government pay for information solicited. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation. Respondents deemed fully qualified will be considered in any resultant solicitation for the requirement. All responses shall be submitted electronically to Chris Zuber at Christopher.Zuber@nasa.gov no later than August 1, 2012. Please reference NNK12CZ005R in any response. Any referenced notes may be viewed at the following URLs linked below.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/NASA/KSC/OPDC20220/NNK12CZ005R/listing.html)
- Record
- SN02806090-W 20120719/120718000601-40477bd85366588b90e38e5f926135c6 (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 |