The Advanced Laser for Extreme Photonics (ALEPH) lab at Colorado State University issues this Request for Proposal (RFP) for design and manufacture of multiple vacuum chambers, details included in Attachment 1 RFP Design and Manufacture Requirements:
CSU is seeking a firm that can perform all aspects of the project in house, no subcontracting, for design and manufacture. ALEPH serves users from many institutions, including other universities and national laboratories who conduct experiments in relativistic laser-matter interactions. CSU plans to upgrade ALEPH’s current 0.85 Petawatt laser both in peak power and in repetition rate. Currently ALEPH is pumped by Xe flashlamps at a repetition rate to 3.3 Hz and are re-designing to operate at a higher power and an increased repetition rate of 10 Hz. ALEPH will use the vacuum chambers to conduct high intensity laser matter interactions. This drives a critical requirement that the vacuum chambers are clean from hydrocarbons to avoid contaminating the expensive laser optics placed inside the chambers. The dimensions and surface finishes of the chambers are described in Attachment 1 RFP Design and Manufacture Requirements along with vacuum best practices for fabrication.
The successful firm will analyze the STEP / PARASOLID CAD files generated at CSU (Attachments 2-4 Design Files), and issue engineering drawings back to CSU complete with tolerancing, weldment maps, analysis of static deformation when under vacuum, along with any suggested changes. These engineering drawings (first deliverable of the project, which will be owned by CSU) will then be approved by CSU. Following the approval, the project will proceed to phase 2 which includes the construction of the estimated 10 chambers listed here:
- Octagonal vacuum chambers estimated quantity of two (2)
- Rectangular vacuum chambers estimated quantity of four (4)
- 36 inch round vacuum chambers estimated quantity of four (4)
