The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) intends to award a firm fixed price contract for one Michell S8K chilled mirror reference hygrometer. In FY22 the NDBC purchased an HG2-XL humidity generator with a supplemental HG2-S chamber to allow for the testing of a full array line of climate quality TAO air temperature and relative humidity probes. That system included a Michell S8K high precision chilled mirror laboratory hygrometer that is the laboratory reference against which the TAO humidity probes are compared. The Governments intends to make an award to the responsive responsible quoter providing the lowest price technically acceptable in accordance with FAR 13.106-2(B)(3).
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This procurement is to purchase a second laboratory reference hygrometer to replace the S8K chilled mirror reference when it is sent out for service and calibration to prevent downtime in the NDBC laboratory that could impact the availability of humidity probes for deployment on the TAO array. Since these are climate quality sensors they must be compared against the same laboratory standard. Another model or manufacturer’s laboratory chilled mirror reference may not have the same accuracy rating, sample rate, averaging scheme. Further, another manufacture may have a different method of implementing the chilled mirror sensor in the laboratory reference. Hence, when the calibration coefficients are calculated another laboratory reference could introduce a step function difference in the coefficient values. Hence, the data collected across the line and across the total TAO array can be inconsistent or skewed which can impact the climate record and the prediction of the climate southern oscillation. Further, NDBC testing and datalogging is already setup to interface to the Michell S8K interface with the commands and data structure.
DOC, Eastern Acquisition Division requires that all contractors doing business with this office be registered with the System for Award Management (SAM). No award can be made to a company not registered in SAM. Contractors active in SAM have a unique entity identifier (UEI) that is used to do business with the federal government. The Government has moved to a free new, non-proprietary identifier that will have to be requested in, and assigned by, the System for Award Management (SAM.gov). You can register and access the site by going to www.sam.gov. The Government gives price preference to US manufactured products.