SOLICITATION NOTICE
65 -- Perfluoroalkoxy polymer resin (PFA) Jars
- Notice Date
- 2/8/2016
- Notice Type
- Presolicitation
- NAICS
- 326111
— Plastics Bag and Pouch 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
- NB646060-16-01472
- Archive Date
- 3/5/2016
- Point of Contact
- Erik Frycklund, Phone: 3019756176
- E-Mail Address
-
erik.frycklund@nist.gov
(erik.frycklund@nist.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Notice of Intent. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) intends to negotiate on a Brand name only basis, under the authority of FAR 13.106-1(b) (1), with the Savillex Corporation, located in Eden Prairie, New Mexico to purchase long term storage Perfluoroalkoxy polymer resin (PFA) Jars for laboratory use. Brand name only justification is based on the following: To meet its mission requirements, the Chemical Science Division supports the former National Biomonitoring Specimen Bank (NBSB) facility at NIST Gaithersburg, MD and the current Marine Environmental Specimen Bank (Marine ESB) at NIST Charleston, SC. The NBSB was established by NIST in 1979 for the long-term preservation of representative environmental specimens for deferred analysis and evaluation. These valuable samples enable investigators to extend their research into the past and provides for future verification of analytical results. The Marine ESB was established in 2002 at the Hollings Marine Laboratory to continue NIST's specimen banking efforts by taking the lead on all current projects of the NBSB. In 2010 the NBSB was shut down and all of the samples archived over the past 30+ years at that facility were transferred to the Marine ESB. Thousands of samples continue to be collected and archived for many projects and are stored at both -150° C (LN2 vapor phase freezers) and -80° C (mechanical freezers) temperatures. The PFA jars with recessed lids being requested are used in continuing research projects that began in 1979 during the development of the NBSB. The jars are used to store tissues collected in the field for long-term archival (100+ years) and for contaminants analysis, both organic (PCB's, PBDE's, PAH's, DDT's, etc.) and inorganic (mercury, lead, arsenic, etc.), for all projects, including the National Marine Mammal Tissue Bank, the Seabird Tissue Archival and Monitoring Project, the Health Assessment of Bottlenose Dolphins Project, and the Pacific Islands Specimen Banking expansion. The jars used by the Marine ESB for archival storage must be made from PFA because of the potential for organic materials leaching from the jar into the sample. The jars are stored in liquid nitrogen vapor phase freezers (-150 ºC - 190 °C) and must be able to hold up to these temperatures for years without cracking, breaking or leaking. Because the specimen bank is set up for long-term archival, the dimensions of the jars are important. Racking systems (boxes and tubes) have been specially created for the dimensions of the Savillex jars to fit inside each rack type in order to maximize space inside the freezers. The jars undergo a rigorous cleaning procedure involving chloroform, ethyl alcohol, hydrochloric acid and nitric acid and must be able to withstand all chemical baths. The jars must be packaged in dust free polyethylene bags because the specimen bank is located in certified ISO Class 5 and 7 clean rooms. This ensures that no further contamination occurs when the jars are brought in to the clean room for preparation (i.e. chemical baths, storage, and archive). The lids must be recessed on the jars in order to accommodate a durable label to be snapped into the lid to identify the sample properly. Labels will not adhere to jars made from PFA either at room temperature or at cryogenic temperatures. Therefore, the recessed lid and tabs are an essential requirement of the jar. Savillex jars have been used since the inception of the NBSB and in order to meet our mission, sampling protocols and materials cannot be altered. One of the primary objectives of the Marine ESB is to provide samples that are collected and banked in a systematic and well documented manner for comparing results over time to identify whether environmental trends exist. Alternative manufacturers have slight variations in formulations when creating PFA products. NIST has identified that chemical compounds are not leached by the jars made from Savillex. Storing one of a kind, valuable samples in an assortment of jars from different manufactures would undermine the comparability of our samples throughout the 36 years of sample collections, potentially jeopardizing the scientific accuracy of decades of research. Testing if a new manufacturer's jars are suitable for long term storage would require many years and hundreds of additional staff hours to conduct analytical measurements before we could verify that the new jars do not contaminate the sample. It is based on this rationale that NIST has concluded Savillex brand PFA jars are the only brand reasonably available. The resulting purchase order will be a Firm Fixed Price purchase order. The NAICS Code for this procurement will be 326111-Plastics packaging manufacturing and the small business size standard is 500 employees. No solicitation package will be issued. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotations; however, responses received by 12:00EST February 19th, 2016, will be considered by the Government. 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 normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Inquiry POCs erik.frycklund@nist.gov Primary grace.garrity@nist.gov Secondary National Institutes of Standards and Technologies NIST Acquisition Management Division (AMD) 100 Bureau Dr. Mail Stop 1640 Gaithersburg, MD. 20899-1640
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOC/NIST/AcAsD/NB646060-16-01472/listing.html)
- Record
- SN04013499-W 20160210/160208234716-a8dbf8709bca0f72bd01368e402d3bc2 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
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