SPECIAL NOTICE
99 -- Intent to Establish a Qualified Manufacturer's List for Measurement Services
- Notice Date
- 10/7/2005
- Notice Type
- Special Notice
- NAICS
- 541990
— All Other Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
- Contracting Office
- Department of Commerce, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Acquisition Management Division, 100 Bureau Drive, Building 301, Room B129, Mail Stop 1640, Gaithersburg, MD, 20899-1640
- ZIP Code
- 20899-1640
- Solicitation Number
- Reference-Number-06-CAW-0001
- Response Due
- 11/4/2005
- Archive Date
- 11/19/2005
- Description
- Intent to Establish a Qualified Manufacturers List for High Pressure, High Flowrate Flow Measurement Services The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the National Metrology Institute of the United States, intends to establish U.S. National Measurement Standards for high-pressure, high gas flow rate measurements, disseminate these to U.S. industry, and, in concert with Na-tional Metrology Institutes (NMIs) of other nations, establish levels of equivalence of national measurement standards of the participating NMIs. Of particular interest is the capability to establish such standards and calibration service in natural gas used in commerce. To establish these U.S. national gas flow rate measurement standards, NIST seeks to identify private sector entities that have flow measurement calibration and research facilities, in natural gas and other gases, and expertise to establish the U.S. National Measurement Standards. Qualified suppliers must be able to provide NIST with access and use of facilities with the capabilities listed below. Such access is required in a timely manner, and will utilize the operat-ing and technical expertise of the supplier?s personnel to safely and effectively operate the facilities for the purpose of establishing flowrate measurement standards and the calibration of flow meters in a range of sizes. The supplier?s facilities must be in the continental United States of America. Given the rather demanding requirements of the services desired, qualified providers may have capabilities that do not meet all of the maximum values or dimensions as stated below, but do have capabilities that cover a significant portion of a parameter range. To better classify accept-able capabilities, acceptable ranges of variation are designated by tiers. First tier suppliers must have capabilities at or above the maximum values given for the various operating capabilities described below. Second tier suppliers may have restricted ranges of some parameters as described below. TESTING FACILITIES CAPABILITIES 1. Provision of gas flows at operating conditions of: a. Operating Pressure ? Both tiers; Testing over the commonly encountered ranges of oper-ating pressures found in pipeline transportation of natural gas in the U.S. is desired. Maximum ? 6.7 megapascals (67 atmospheres; 1,000 pounds per square inch (psi)) or above; Minimum ? 4 megapascals (40 atmospheres; 600 psi); b. Operating Temperature Range ? Both tiers Normal ambient temperatures or a range of 4 degrees C to 50 degrees C (39.2 de-grees F to 122 degrees F) at time of operations. 2. Meter Test Section Dimensional Requirements: Sufficient to install the meter to be tested and a minimum length of upstream piping, of the same nominal diameter as the meter, equivalent to 40 diameters of the metering element or greater. Upstream piping is to be straight and unobstructed. The facility is to provide such piping. Upstream piping should be capable of supporting installation of flow conditioning devices of various lengths and types. a. Pipe Diameters First tier - 25 mm to 762 mm (2 inches to 30 inches); Second tier ? 25 mm to 300 mm (2 inches to 12 inches); b. Length ? Both tiers A minimum of 40 diameters of the internal diameter of the meter to be tested is required to be upstream of the meter. Flow conditioning capabilities at the entrance of the upstream piping are desirable and may be required in cases where the excessive swirl conditions may be induced in the flowing stream by piping configuration immediately upstream of the 40 diameter, or greater, piping upstream of the installed meter. 3. Gas density determination. This may be based on composition measurement capability supporting computation. Direct measurement of the density of the flowing gas at operating conditions is acceptable if the measurement uncertainty of the gas density can be documented to be below 0.01%. a. Natural gas Capability for determination of gas composition using gas chromatographic analysis of up to six carbon atoms per molecule is required in addition to nitrogen and carbon dioxide concentration determination. Composition of natural gas varies as that normally found in commerce in the United States. 4. Flow rate established over the pressure temperature ranges stated above. a. First Tier ? 500 to 20,000 cubic feet per minute b. Second Tier ? 500 to 2,000 cubic feet per minute 5. Flow rate control capability ? Both Tiers Ability to establish control of the rate of flow through the meter test section such that the variation in flow rate does not exceed 5% of the nominal rate for test periods of 15 minutes. 6. Expertise in operations of flow meter calibration facilities ? Both Tiers a. Demonstration of such expertise includes: The provision of flow meter calibrations to external or internal customers on a regular basis, e.g., a minimum of 10 meters per year constitutes a threshold. Publication in the flow metrology technical literature, particularly in the area of measurement uncertainty analysis of the systems and facilities considered here. 7. Measurement uncertainty analysis and quality system documentation ? both tiers a. Demonstrated by at establishment and use of a quality system. Facilities will demonstrate experience in quality system documentation conform-ing to the ISO 17025 or similar standard. b. Accreditation by a recognized U.S. quality system accreditation body, e.g., the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program or the American Association of Laboratory Accreditation, constitutes acceptable levels of demonstration. 8. Measurement uncertainty documentation for the flow measurement standards and facilities ? both tiers: Facility staff will work collaboratively with NIST staff to augment, where neces-sary, both measurement uncertainty analysis of the flow standards to be establish such that this documentation meets NIST?s requirements for provision of its measurement services. Such requirements are available upon request or may be found at www.nist.gov 9. Direct access to high-speed Internet connections facilitating remote data acquisition and control of measuring instruments that NIST may place at the facility ? Both Tiers. 10. Demonstrated capability to safely install flow meters of various types up to the largest diameter capability of the facility ? Both Tiers. 11. Test sections that are protected to some degree from temperature excursions caused by the weather ? Both Tiers. 12. Capability to house and protect U.S. government-supplied equipment necessary for success-ful operations ? Both Tiers. a. Buildings near to, or housing, the test sections which are suitable for the locating and sheltering the installation of NIST-supplied instrumentation and test equipment necessary to the meter calibration operations. b. Physical security for NIST-owned equipment is required to ensure that it is not damaged or its operation impaired during facility operations not associated with NIST-related ac-tivities or when the facilities are not operational. c. Environmental requirements Temperature ? 65 degrees F to 75 degrees F. Relative Humidity ? 30 percent to 80 percent. 13. Multiple geographic sites ? Both Tiers. a. Multiple sites are acceptable, but will require additional resources over a single site. In-stallation at multiple sites will be a point for additional negotiation. INSPECTION OF FACILITIES NIST reserves the right to periodically examine the facilities and technical capabilities of quali-fied manufacturers to determine if they meet the minimum requirements NECESSARY IMPROVEMENTS OF MEASUREMENT CAPABILITIES Successful suppliers must be willing to must work with NIST personnel to effect changes to facilities to meet the NIST criteria for its measurement services. Cost of modifications will be negotiated as needed. ACCESS TO SUPPLIER FACILITIES AND INTERACTIONS WITH SUPPLIER STAFF NIST staff will require access to the facilities supplied for the purposes of equipment installation, upgrading, and maintenance. NIST staff may be on-site for the purposes of monitoring opera-tions associated with meter calibration on an as-needed basis. EVALUATION OF SUPPLIER CAPABILITY - REQUIRED SUBMISSIONS The capability of Contractors shall be determined through site visits and review of the documentation described below. In responding to this announcement, all Contractors must provide the following: 1. A statement of the capability tier(s), as defined above, for which their facilities are submitted for qualification; 2. A description of facility capabilities. This description must follow the format of the desired capabilities statement (Testing Facilities Capabilities) given above; 3. Measurement uncertainty analysis documentation and quality system documentation; 4. A description of the flow meter calibration services the Contractor can provide; 5. A description of the technical qualifications and capabilities of staff responsibilities for operation of the facilities. Site visits may be coordinated with potential suppliers to coincide with flow meter testing and calibration operations. TIMELY PROVISION OF SERVICES Provision of NIST calibration services requires timely response to customers seeking meter calibration involving the use of qualified provider facilities. The intent of NIST is to work cooperatively with qualified providers to schedule and execute meter calibration activities thereby providing timely services to NIST customers. To facilitate scheduling operations, qualified providers must establish a single point of contact for discussion of scheduling operations. RECERTIFICATION AND QUALIFICATION FOR NEW SUPPLIERS Recertification of existing suppliers and qualification of new suppliers for this Qualified Manu-facturers List shall occur not earlier than two (2) years from the date the list is established and not later than four (4) years from the date the list is established at the discretion of the Govern-ment. COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT ACTIVITIES NIST anticipates working with qualified providers to improve the measurement capabilities of a provider?s facilities. Such activities will be covered under separate arrangements, but qualified providers must be willing to work with NIST to achieve such improvements. Questions regarding this notice must be submitted in writing to Carol A. Wood, Contract Spe-cialist, via fax 301-975-8884, or e-mail carol.wood@nist.gov. Telephone inquiries can be directed to Mrs. Wood on 301-975-8172. Responses to this notice must be sent to the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Acquisition Management Division, Attn: Carol A. Wood, Contract Specialist, 100 Bureau Drive, Mail Stop 1640, Gaithersburg, MD 20899-1640. Submission must be received by 3:00 p.m. local time on November 4, 2005. Original submissions are required.
- Record
- SN00912731-W 20051009/051007212739 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
| FSG Index | This Issue's Index | Today's FBO Daily Index Page |