Introduction: Pursuant to FAR Subpart 13.106-1(b)(1), the U.S. Army RDECOM Contracting Center, Natick Contracting Division, on behalf of PM-SCIE, intends to award a firm fixed price purchase order on a sole source basis to: TEXTILE PROTECTION AND COMFORT CENTER (T-PACC), 2401 Research Drive, Raleigh NC, 27695. THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS. RESPONSES WILL BE RECEIVED FOR FUTURE REQUIREMENT CONSIDERATION ONLY. NO SOLICITATION DOCUMENT IS AVAILABLE. 1. Nature and description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency's needs: The objective of this effort is to compare the results of burn predictions from two exposure durations for several differing garment types in order to establish correlation between two testing falcilities. Results will derive from exposures conducted at both the Natick Thermal Test Facility (TTF) and at the Textile Protection and Comfort Center (T-PACC) PyroMan test facility located at North Carolina State University(NC State.) Proprietary business confidential flux data and burn predictions from these exposures will be exchanged for collaborative analysis. In addition, analysis using the current burn model, calculations including the emerging ASTMF 1930 burn standard, will be conducted. 2. A demonstration that the proposed contractor is the only source available to provide these services or goods (i.e. unique qualifications, proprietary rights, etc.): Until the recent opening of the Natick TTF, an ASTM F 1930 thermal manikin burn tests for Product Manager, Soldier Clothing and Individual Equipment (PM SCIE) were conducted at the Textile Protection and Comfort Center (T-PACC) at NC State. With the development of the new ASTM F 1930 flash-fire manikin at the Natick Soldier Center (NSC) thermal test facility (TTF), there are a number of opportunities for T-PACC to collaborate with Natick personnel to enhance the quality of thermal manikin testing at both falcilities. This proposal for research collaboration will advance the understanding of the comparisons and differences between the thermal response of the two systems and the corresponding burn predictions. This effort will allow PM SCIE to correlate future burns of clothing and individual equipment conducted at the Natick TTF to the burns conducted in the past at T-PACC. This correlation and testing effort will be lead by a team of scientists at the T-PACC who possess extensive education and experience in conducting tests for the military utilizing whole ensemb1e fue exposure testing. These scientists include: Professor Roger Barker, Director of the Textile Protection and Comfort Center and Burlington Professor of Textile Technology at NC State and Mr. Anthony Shawn Deaton, Special Projects Director of the T-PACC. Professor Barker has conducted testing and researeh of thermally protective textiles for over twenty years and is internationally recognized as an expert in this. field. Mr. Deaton has been involved in testing and research on thermally protective garments for over seven years and is an active member of the American Standard Testing Materials (ASTM) subcommittee that is updating the Fl930 standard as well as creating a new Stored Energy Test standard. It is unreasonable to expect another vendor to be able to assimilate the variables of this complex service and provide PM SCIE with the same level of services and appropriate skill mix of contractor experience and staffing in the short term required for this effort. Any new contractor would need adequate time to build a facility, purchase and calibrate their equipment and adjust and familiarize themselves with the military's processes and policies. PM SCIE considers a minimum four to five year transitional period is required to provide similar or superior quality testing to support the Army's requirements. Another competition in lieu of a sole source award to NC State would result in a costly duplication of effort estimated to be $500K without any benefit to the Government to re-due all testing to date. Additional resources would be expended to conduct a competition, to include soliciting and evaluating competing proposals and selecting the successful offeror, and as previously stated a four to five year transition period would be required to enable a new contractor to develop the ability to perform at an acceptable level required. Also, assuming there were other vendors capable of competing for an effort, a competition would take approximately six months. 3. A description of the market research that was conducted and the results, or a statement of the reason a market research was not conducted: Knowledgeable individuals within the Government and Industry were contacted to ascertain market capabilities to meet the requirements of this effort. PM SCIE determined that there are only two faleilities,the T -PACC at NC State and the DuPont Corporation. The DuPont facility does not contract for test and evaluation of materials outside of their own product lines. Additionally, the PyroHand is a unique instrumented manikin, developed by NC State, TP & CC, under Government contract for NSRDEC. 4. Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition: As explained above, competition for the subject interim work is not possible. 5. A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required: Competition of this effort is not contemplated after the correlation of the two test facilities is completed. PM SCIE will conduct all future thermal testing at the Government owned Natick TTF. 6. Interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to this requirement to the U.S. Army RDECOM Contracting Center, Natick Contracting Division via e-mail to:
contact@example.gov no later than COB 22 June 2011. Contracting Office Address: RDECOM Contracting Center - Natick CCRD-NA-SU, Natick Contracting Division Kansas Street, Building 1 Natick, MA 01760-5011
