Notice of Intent. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) intends to negotiate on a sole source basis, under the authority of FAR 13.106-1(b) (1), with the KNF Corporation, located in Tamaqua, Pennsylvania to purchase Fluoro Ethylene Propylene (FEP) bags for laboratory use. Sole Source justification is based on the following: To meet its mission requirements, the Chemical Science Division supports the former National Biomonitoring Specimen Bank (NBSB) facility at NIST Gaithersburg, MD and the current Marine Environmental Specimen Bank (Marine ESB) at NIST Charleston, SC. The NBSB was established by NIST in 1979 for the long-term preservation of representative environmental specimens for deferred analysis and evaluation. These valuable samples enable investigators to extend their research into the past and provides for future verification of analytical results. The Marine ESB was established in 2002 at the Hollings Marine Laboratory to continue NISTs specimen banking efforts by taking the lead on all current projects of the NBSB. In 2010 the NBSB was shut down and all of the samples archived over the past 30+ years at that facility were transferred to the Marine ESB. Thousands of samples continue to be collected and archived for many projects and are stored at both -150 C (LN2 vapor phase freezers) and -80'C (mechanical freezers) temperatures. The FEP bags have been used in continuing research projects that began in 1979 during the development of the NBSB. The bags are used to ship, process, and store tissues collected in the field for long-term archival (100+ years) and for contaminants analysis, both organic (PCB's, PBDE's, PAH's, DDT's, etc.) and inorganic (mercury, lead, arsenic, etc.), for all projects, including the National Marine Mammal Tissue Bank, the Seabird Tissue Archival and Monitoring Project, the Health Assessment of Bottlenose Dolphins Project, and the Pacific Islands Specimen Banking expansion. The bags used by the Marine ESB for archival storage and processing of samples must be made from FEP Type-A because of the potential for organic materials leaching from the material into the sample. The bags are stored in liquid nitrogen vapor phase freezers (-150 - C - 190 - C) and must be able to hold up to these temperatures for many years with minimal cracking, breaking or leaking. These bags must be double packaged by the manufacturer in dust free polyethylene bags because the specimen bank is located in certified ISO Class 5 and 7 clean rooms. This ensures that no further contamination of the clean room occurs when the bags and sheets are brought in to the clean room for preparation of sample processing or storage. All bags must bear a Certificate of Conformance to NASA Specifications JPG 5322.1 Level 50 Surface Cleanliness Levels for Precision Packaging Materials. It is required that these Fluoro Ethylene Propylene bags manufactured by KNF Corporation be purchased to provide continued sample collections and any deviation in supplies may contain different formulations of FEP. One of the primary objectives of the Marine ESB is to provide samples that are collected and banked in a systematic and well documented manner for comparing results over time to identify whether environmental trends exist. Storing one of a kind, valuable samples in an assortment of bags from different manufactures would undermine the comparability of the samples throughout the 36 years of collections potentially jeopardizing the scientific accuracy of decades of research. Analyses by NIST researchers are sensitive enough to pick up variations in chemicals leached from the bags storing the samples. When researchers use samples stored in bags from 1979 and 2015 to determine levels of the trace elements or other chemicals present in the sample they must make the assumption that the samples are stored or processed in bags with the same baseline chemicals, otherwise they are not comparable. Testing if a new manufacturer's bags are suitable and do not alter measurement comparability would require many years and hundreds of additional staff hours to conduct analytical measurements. It is based on this rationale that NIST has concluded the KNF Corporation brand items are the only source reasonably available. The resulting purchase order will be a Firm Fixed Price purchase order. The NAICS Code for this procurement will be 326111-Plastics packaging manufacturing and the small business size standard is 500 employees. No solicitation package will be issued. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotations; however, responses received by 12:00EST February 19th, 2016, will be considered by the Government. A determination by the Government not to compete the proposed acquisition based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Inquiry POCs
contact@example.gov Primary
contact@example.gov Secondary National Institutes of Standards and Technologies NIST Acquisition Management Division (AMD) 100 Bureau Dr. Mail Stop 1640 Gaithersburg, MD. 20899-1640
