National Institute of Standards & Technology, Acquisition & Assistance Div., Bldg. 301, Rm B117, Gaithersburg, MD 20899

66 -- FLUIDS RHEOMETER -- AMENDMENT 0001 SOL 53SBNB860098 DUE 081998 POC Teresa A. Reefe, Contract Specialist, (301) 975-6364, Anita Tolliver, Contracting Officer, (301) 975-6308 WEB: NIST Contracts Office, http://www.nist.gov/admin/od/contract/contract.htm. E-MAIL: NIST Contracts Office, Contract@nist.gov. Amendement 0001 is hereby issued to the synopsis previously published in the CBD on July 23, 1998. Amendment 0001 is issued to furnish a Request for Quotation (RFQ) in the combined synopsis/solicitation format found at FAR 12.6. All offerors who have previously requested a copy of the solicitation will receive a copy of this notice via facsimile. THIS IS A COMBINED SYNOPSIS/SOLICITATION FOR COMMERCIAL ITEMS 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; QUOTES ARE BEING REQUESTED AND A WRITTEN SOLICITATION WILL NOT BE ISSUED. SOLICITATION NUMBER 53SBNB860098 IS BEING ISSUED AS A REQUEST FOR QUOTATION (RFQ) USING SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION PROCEDURES. Incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 97-04. This acquisition is unrestricted. The SIC code is 3826 and the related small business size standard is 500 employees. The National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST's) Center for Neutron Research has a requirement for a Fluids Rheometer, with concentric cylinder geometry, which can provide controlled stress, controlled strain, and dynamic (oscillatory) measurements of the rheological behavior of fluids with viscosities ranging from 10 mPas-s to over 100 Pas-s. The rheometer will be used for simultaneous small-angle neutron scattering (SANS) measurements and, therefore, must be adaptable for operation on the SANS instruments at NISTs Center for Neutron Research. This requirement will place certain dimensional constraints on the equipment and will imply that the rehometer's concentric cylinder geometry accommodate the passage of a neutron beam through the test fluid, and that the starting/stopping of rheological measurements can be controlled by the SANS instruments' data acquisition computer system. The Contract Line Item Number (CLIN), quantity, and unit issue are as follows: CLIN 0001, Fluids Rheometer System meeting thespecifications below, one (1) each; CLIN 0002, Operations Manual, 1 each; CLIN 0003, Installation and on-site review of hardware, software, calibration, and alignment techniques, 1 lot; CLIN 0004, Full Service Warranty (minimum of 1 year), including all parts, labor, shipping and personnel travel expenses, and any applicable software and firmware updates, 1 lot. Technical specifications: 1) PERFORMANCE REQUIREMENTS: A) Torque Range: 1 micro-Newton meters to 150 milli-Newton meters; B) Torque resolution: 0.01 micro-Newton meters; C) Angular resolution: 1 microradians or less; D) Frequency range: 0.0001 to 100 Hertz. 2) MEASURING GEOMETRY REQUIREMENTS: Rheometer must accommodate concentric cylinders with: a) inner cylinder (bob) at least 30 mm in diameter; b) cylinder height at least 40 mm; c) minimum cylinder gap: 0.25 mm; d) maximum cylinder gap: 1.0 mm; e) outer cylinder wall thickness: up to 3 mm; f) inner cylinder (bob) mass: up to 100 g. 3) TEST TYPES: A) Rotational test with controlled shear stress (CSS); B) Rotational test with controlled shear rate (CSR); C) Creep tests; D) Stress relaxation; E) Variable frequency controlled-stress and controlled-strain oscillatory tests. 4) MEASURED OR EVALUATED VALUES: A) Dynamic viscosity; B) Complex viscosity; C) Complex modulus; D) Storage modulus; E) Loss modulus; F) Shear stress; G) Shear rate; H) Strain; I) Kinematic viscosity; J) Deflection angle; K) Frequency; L) Relaxation time. 5) PHYSICAL REQUIREMENTS: A) Rheometer "footprint" must lie within a rectangular area of maximum dimensions 16" x 22"; B) Height from base of rheometer to bottom of fluid cup must be less than 12 inches; C) Vertical travel of measuring bob: 3 inch minimum; greater than 6 inches preferred; D) Rheometer must have an unobstructed path for a 2.0 cm high x 5.0 cm wide, horizontal, incident neutron beam to impinge on the middle of the measuring cup and bob, and have no obstruction for exiting neutrons scattered within +/- 15 degrees from the incident beam direction. This requirement pertains only to measurements without temperature control. 6) OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS: A) Rheometer must be computer-controlled. All rheometer operational parameters must be programmable via a graphical user interface on the control computer. Control computer must store data in ASCII format and have an Ethernet interface for data transfer; B) Rheometer must provide digital input/output signals that may be used to start/stop all types of rheology test measurements from a remote computer in order to synchronize rheometer measurements with SANS data collection. 7) ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS: A) Temperature control for concentric cylinder measuring geometry. Temperature range: -20 degrees Centigrade to 120 degrees Centigrade; B) Operations manual describing all features of supplied control software and methods for synchronizing rheometer operation with a remote (SANS data acquisition) computer; C) Full 1 year on-site service warranty including: all parts, labor, shipping and personnel travel expenses, and any applicable software and firmware updates; D) Installation and on-site review of hardware, software and calibration and alignment techniques; E) Technical support via telephone or email with response time of less than 48 hours. The vendor shall deliver all line items FOB Destination to NIST, Building 301, Shipping and Receiving, Gaithersburg, MD 20899. Required delivery time is 60 days from date of award. The provisions at 52.212-1, Instructions to Offerors-Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition. The provision at 52.212-2, Evaluation-Commercial Items applies to this acquisition. The Government will award a purchase order resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. Offerors shall address all requirements in this combined synopsis/solicitation, and shall provide clear evidence of understanding and the ability and willingness to comply with the Government's specification of need. Failure to address a specification/requirement will be construed by the Government as inability to meet the need, or the offeror's taking exception to it. Evaluation criteria to be included in paragraph (a) of provision 52.212-2 are as follows: 1) TECHNICAL CAPABILITY TO MEET OR EXCEED THE GOVERNMENT'S PERFORMANCE SPECIFICATIONS. Offerors shall submit a quotation addressing all required specifications, and shall provide descriptive literature to include specifications, drawings and functional diagrams which fully describe the operation and performance of the rheometer in controlled-stress and controlled strain modes, under steady and oscillatory shear conditions. 2) COMPATIBILITY OR ADAPTABILITY OF EQUIPMENT FOR OPERATION ON THE SANS INSTRUMENTS AT NIST. Offerors shall address the physical constraints and the interfacing requirements to show that rheometer measurements can be performed simultaneously and synchronously with SANS measurements. 3) PAST EXPERIENCE: Offerors shall submit information that demonstrates their experience in supplying rheometers for use under comparable conditions (e.g. light scattering, fluorescence spectroscopy) and constraints to those specified in this RFQ. Offerors shall also submit a list of three contracts completed during the past three years for similar equipment with the following information: name of contracting activity, contract number, contract type, total contract value, contracting office and telephone number, and program manager and telephone number; and 4) SERVICE AND SUPPORT. The clause at 52.212-4, Contract Terms and Conditions-Commercial Items applies to this acquisition. The clause at 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statutes or Executive Orders-Commercial Items, applies to this acquisition, including subparagraphs (6) 52.222-26, (7) 52.222-35, (8) 52.222-36, (9) 52.222-37, (15) 52.225-21, and Department of Commerce Agency-Level Protest Procedures Level Above the Contracting Officer, which can be downloaded from the NIST Web Page located athttp://www.nist.gov/admin/od/contract/protest.htm. All offerors shall submit the following: 1) Three (3) copies of quotation which addresses CLIN 0001 through 0004; 2) Technical description and/or product literature; 3) Description of commercial warranty; 4) Two (2) copies of the most recently published price list(s); 5) A completed copy of the provision at 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications-Commercial Items which may be downloaded from http://www.nist.gov/admin/od/contract/repcert.htm. All offers should be sent to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Acquisition and Assistance Division, Attn: Teresa A. Reefe, Building 301, Room B117, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-0001. For information, call the POC identified above. Submission must be received by 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time on August 19, 1998. Faxed offers will not be accepted. Posted 08/06/98 (W-SN233600). (0218)

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