SOURCES SOUGHT
36 -- The United States Mint at San Francisco (SFM) is seeking industry input on the development and installation of Induction Annealing capabilities for proof coin blanks. - USMHQ100013A
- Notice Date
- 2/2/2010
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 333994
— Industrial Process Furnace and Oven Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Treasury, United States Mint (USM), Manufacturing Procurement Branch, 801 Ninth Street, NW, Washington, District of Columbia, 20220, United States
- ZIP Code
- 20220
- Solicitation Number
- USMHQ100013
- Archive Date
- 4/24/2010
- Point of Contact
- Jina M Jackson, Phone: 2023540123
- E-Mail Address
-
jina.jackson@usmint.treas.gov
(jina.jackson@usmint.treas.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- The United States Mint at San Francisco (SFM) is seeking industry input on the development and installation of Induction Annealing capabilities for proof coin blanks. 1.Introduction: This Request for Information (RFI) is being released to obtain the most suitable approach to acquiring the necessary services and equipment leading to a sound technical process. The United States Mint at San Francisco (SFM) is seeking industry input on the development and installation of Induction Annealing capabilities for proof coin blanks. Proof coins are the highest quality coins produced by the United States Mint (USM) and additional information may be reviewed at www.usmint.gov. The USM requires a Vendor Capabilities Statement along with responses to this RFI and intends to hold a Pre-Solicitation Site Visit at the SFM’s facility (Actual Date: TBD) for all interested potential bidders. 2.Background: The process that the USM currently uses is to rim the golden dollar blanks before annealing and all other denominations after annealing. 54” wide belt annealing furnaces with a bright annealing (reducing) atmosphere are used to process proof coin blanks. The current temperatures are between 1000 to 1500 degrees F in the existing furnaces utilizing 4.5 % hydrogen and 96 % nitrogen reducing atmosphere. 3.Purpose of Objective: The purpose of this Request for Information is to seek information about technical processes from industry to allow the USM to proceed with the development and installation of Induction Annealing systems for proof coin blanks. To meet this requirement, the desired final equipment configuration shall be a Lean Cell one piece flow configuration that will include an upset mill (puts a rim on the blank----USM supplied) and an induction annealing system into a weight controlled single burnisher load sized (up to 29 Kg but could be as low as 14.5 kg every thirty to sixty minutes---see Table 3 at end of the RFI) container. Each system shall be designed to achieve maximum flexibility to process all or as many as possible of each of the denominations to allow full interchangeability of annealing systems. The objective of the Lean Cell shall be to get single piece flow thru rimming, annealing and burnishing in a six to eight single denomination cells. Ultimately, when the USM arrives at the final production cells, the USM envisions a number (estimated: six to eight) of induction annealing systems each with about a 100 square feet footprint. There should be a pre-heat higher powered inductor followed by additional inductors maintaining the soak temperature for the proper time to get the desired uniform finish grain size. The intent is to rotate individual blanks through the annealing flux to achieve uniform (non-stratified) properties without surface and edge defects which will allow the USM to stamp proof quality coins. The USM has determined from initial testing, adjacent blanks should not touch each other (rim to rim) to prevent welding. The blanks should roll down a series of stacked ramps using gravity or be carried by conveyors while the blanks rotate on a series of horizontal ramps as contact between the blanks is not allowed as determined by the results of induction annealing trials. The USM recognizes that blanks stacked in a column (like a roll of coins) do weld together at contact points during the induction heating process. The number of ramps and their length should generate enough time at temperature to achieve a uniform and consistent grain size range and hardness.. To date, the USM has concluded that roll-down ramps rather than horizontal conveyors are more desirable since capital and maintenance costs would be substantially lower than having conveyors. Conveyors or other alternative concepts may be used if it has been determined and well documented in subsequent trials that roll-down ramps are not feasible. When the blanks are above 110 degrees F, they are required to be in a protective non-oxidizing or reducing atmosphere to maintain the bright annealed finish. At a minimum, on the pending cell production equipment the USM needs to produce 29 Kg. of each denomination as shown in the attached Table 3 at the end of the RFI. The twenty-nine (29) Kg burnisher load size consists of one of the following blank quantities: 5,800 clad nickels, 12,789 clad dimes, 5,115 clad quarters, 2,558 halves or 3,581 golden dollars. Preliminary tests have shown that full power can be applied as rapidly as possible to the clad blanks without detrimental (delaminations) results to the clad blank bond. This will require further confirmation on the Development Equipment. Similarly, the USM advises instantaneously quench hot clad and silver blanks directly into a water tank is acceptable and is currently so performed in the circulating production process. Such quenches do not affect the blanks’ properties and clad bond integrity. Equipment Considerations The USM has several conditions that are required to be tested in the next development phase. These required testings shall determine the future design of production equipment. The USM also recognizes that to achieve property uniformity, the vertically oriented blanks must rotate through the inductor as they pass by in a single row channel on the rims of the blanks. What is not recognized is whether or not the blank can be in contact with each other on the rim as they pass through the inductors. Rimming is the process currently used to upset (bump up the edge by decreasing the diameter between a set of grooved rolls) the edge or rim of a flat blank prior to stamping finish coins. Currently it is unclear whether the USM will anneal rimmed or unrimmed blanks. It is current USM practice to rim our golden dollar blanks before annealing and all other denominations after annealing. The USM is willing to explore rimming all denominations before annealing. The USM prefers to be able to anneal both blank types---rimmed and unrimmed. The USM is not clear on the dwell time at temperature for each denomination to replicate the blank annealed properties currently in use. In this configuration, the USM estimates this dwell time to be between 30 to 120 seconds. This confirmation of dwell time shall be addressed in the proposal as stipulated in the test or agreed-to equivalent test apparatus referenced below. Requirements: Technical Evaluation Ultimately a requirement of the evaluation of proposals made to a subsequent Statement of Work (yet to be issued) shall include the USM’s visit to each selected bidder’s development facility to clarify any salient items and evaluate the bidder’s capabilities. For the selected vendor, the USM will supply all needed unannealed blanks of all denominations except one cent blanks (they are not annealed at the SFM). Development Equipment: The Required Tasks are expected to be as follows: 1. At the vendor’s facility: develop and operate a laboratory setup of vertically oriented blanks using an acceptable method of material handling in a reducing atmosphere to test whether at the required annealing temperature (1050F to 1500F, nominal 1250° F range) contact between rotating blanks will generate unacceptable marks that prevent s the production of the highest quality proof coin sets possible. The required throughput for the induction annealing system is 29 Kg. every 30 to 50 minutes depending on the denomination (see Table 3). 2. At the vendor’s facility: develop and operate a laboratory setup that will determine the total amount of dwell time at the required annealing temperatures for each of the five denominations to meet required properties. Note: For both items #1 and #2, it is essential that a precise measurement of the temperature and time of the blanks during the test runs are available at the throughput in #1. 3. Obtain information and projections power usage and operating costs. 4. Assist the USM in the evaluation of the properties of annealed samples and coin stamping results. 5. Induction annealing computer modeling and simulation of the products. Required Deliverables in the pending Statement of Work are expected to be: (Comments should be provided in Excel, or Microsoft Word formats; via Fed Ex or Email. 1. Initial: Conclusions and a report of Induction Annealing computer modeling of the b blanks at the inception of the project to give guidance to prototype development. 2. Intermediate: After initial testing is adequate, using the developed concept from the above and other data – a report on the feasibility of a production volume system meeting the stated quantities with the following considerations: throughput, reliability, operating cost, footprint, maintainability, etc. along with the projected design drawings. 3. Final: The operational prototype development equipment, drawings, bill of materials, operating data and manuals. 4. Induction annealed blanks, determination of proper annealing times and temperatures, vendor report of power usage, transformer types required, operating costs, and comments on feasibility in full production. Custom channel inductors and their specifications and ramp(s), test conveyor(s) and feeder(s). 5. Provide a minimum maintenance material handling which is essential in the production systems. 5. A formal report to be provided to the Contracting Technical Representative (COTR) (Date: TBD) incorporating all facts and findings and final determinations of each of the deliverables. 6. All USM supplied materials shall be returned to the Contracting Technical Representative (COTR). After completion of the above developmental phase, the successful vendor will have the opportunity to submit a proposal for design, development, and build of five to eight production induction annealing systems. The purchase of the production systems will be in phases: The first phase will be one full operating system installed at the SFM and five to seven subsequent options for identical or improved induction annealing systems. Questions: Any question shall be directed to Jina Jackson, Contract Specialist, via Email: jina.jackson@usmint.treas.gov, Subject Line: RFI: USM HQ 10 0013A Induction Annealing of Coin Blanks ~ Questions, No later than (NLT) the 5:00 p.m. (Eastern), February 19, 2010. All industry questions and USM responses/clarifications will be incorporated into a single document and sent to all potential bidders by C.O.B March 23, 2010. Closing Date: All final submissions of interest, relevant questions and vendor’s capabilities shall be directed to Jina Jackson, Contract Specialist, and Email: jina.jackson@usmint.treas.gov, Subject Line: RFI: USM HQ 10 0013A, NLT 5:00 p.m. (Eastern), April 9, 2010. Disclaimers: The United States Mint shall not be liable in any way for any costs incurred by vendors in the preparation and delivery of their responses to the RFI. Furthermore, the receipt of this RFI and or submission of a response confer no rights upon the vendor nor obligate the United States Mint in any manner. The information obtained through this process is considered to be market research as described by FAR 2.101 and in accordance with FAR 10.002. Please note, in accordance with 31 U.S.C. §5136, no provisions of law governing procurement or public contracts are applicable to the procurement of goods or services necessary for carrying out Mint programs and operations. Table 1: (see attached document) Table 2: (see attached document) Table 3: (see attached document)
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/TREAS/USM/CirPr/USMHQ100013/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: San Francisco Mint, San Francisco, California, United States
- Record
- SN02055349-W 20100204/100202234955-0c9f6f022522f0c9a55fd600ef81c4a4 (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 |