Infrared Camera

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL (RFP) OR A REQUEST FOR QUOTE (RFQ). INFORMATION RECEIVED WILL BE USED FOR MARKET RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY. The National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST) is conducting Market Research to gather information and identify potential sources capable of providing Brand Name FLIR Systems Inc. SC8300 Series or Equal an infrared camera that meet the salient characteristics identified herein. This announcement does not commit the Government to the award of a contract as a result of this sources sought synopsis and no solicitation is available at this time. The information obtained from this announcement will be utilized in the development of an Acquisition Strategy for this requirement. After results of this market research are analyzed and compared with NIST's technical specifications, NIST may conduct a competitive procurement and subsequently award a contract. NIST is seeking responses from all responsible sources, including large and small businesses including small businesses in all socially economic categories identified in FAR Part 19. If at least two qualified small businesses are identified during this market research effort then this acquisition may be solicited as a small business set aside. The specific purpose of this Sources Sought Announcement is to determine if there are small businesses capable of meeting the requirement, if at least two qualified small businesses are identified as a result of this market research effort, then this requirement may be solicited as a small business set aside. A determination by the Government not to compete this requirement based upon responses to this announcement is solely within the discretion of the Government. The NAICS Code for this requirement is 333316, "Photographic and Photocopying Equipment Manufacturing" with a small business size standard of 1000 Employees. The National Institute of Standards & Technology (NIST), National Fire Research Lab (NFRL) seeks information on vendors that are capable of providing a Thermal Imaging Camera, a Portable High Speed Data Recorder, and Image Data Acquisition and Image Analysis Software. The infrared camera will be used to capture fire experiments at the NFRL. The item shall be a high resolution, high speed thermal camera with flame filtering capabilities and optics to accommodate both close-up and far-out research experiments. The camera shall have a suitable interface for communicating with a control computer and the software must provide video compression option with sacrificing quality. The software must be capable of analyzing images from past fire experiments and work with other thermal imagers already owned by the NIST Engineering Laboratory. Camera Salient Characteristic: a. The camera needs to provide high resolution images with at least 1344 x 784 pixels for the widest possible viewing window for capturing structural deflection through fire and smoke during large scale fire experiments. b. Set frame rate from0.01Hz up to 120Hz to maximize the collection of fire data as close to real time as possible; i.e., the most resolution possible for future data analysis and evaluation. c. Ambient drift compensation; which requires linear cryogenic cooling with less than a 15 minute cool down time to provide high speed and reliability measurements in a wide range of operational temperatures without external cooling. d. A dynamic range of at least 14 bits to resolve accurately with a minimum 2% uncertainty of absolute temperature readings from approximately 0 degrees F to 2000 degrees F e. The camera must have a 200 megapixel clock rate which allows a resolution of 1344 x 784 at 132 frames/second for capturing dynamic events such as structural collapse and flashover. f. Thermal camera shall be able to capture data for up to 60 minutes with zero dropped frames at the full frame rate and maximum window size of the camera. g. Operability of 99.5% or greater is required for insuring the maximum amount of data collected and that events are not missed. h. Deterministic or high-speed preview while on-going capture of thermal images is necessary for real time test evaluations along with storage of the entire test event. The camera shall provide asynchronous integrate while reading or asynchronous integrate then read out modes. i. Shall provide precise temperature measurements and utilize the 14 bit dynamic range efficiently while having adjustable digital gain and offset to map the linear portion of the Focal Plane Array to the full range of the digital count values. j. Shall provide ease of integration into the existing NFRL data acquisition system and be compatible with other existing thermal and IR cameras in the division. The camera shall be able to be controlled over Gigabit Ethernet, Cameralink or IEEE 1394. k. Digital camera data must be available simultaneously on Gigabit Ethernet and Cameralink. l. Shall have at least four presets for sequencing for superframing or dynamic range extension. m. Camera shall have triggering inputs and outputs for external devices with software support for these features. n. Thermal camera shall support IRIG-B synchronization, global sync with high accuracy clocks (GPS, Atomic or like) o. IRIG time stamp latency shall meet or exceed TSPI timing requirements of <+/-50usec p. Thermal camera shall have an analog output with user selectable text overlay and color palette, i.e., NTSC, PAL, S-Video, SVGA q. Camera shall have HD-SDI video output with user selectable text and color palette r. Software controls for gain are required with various presets (linear, manual, dynamic, plateau equalization...) s. Camera should read data in Degrees (C,F,KI,R) or A/D counts t. Images require storage as either .BMP, .TIFF, .JPG, or .PNG u. Data sequences require storage as .CSV, .SEQ or a series of bitmaps v. Video recording needs to be stored as .WMV or .AVI w. Software shall provide pixel (area) profiling (time vs. temperature graphs) x. A quick setup and ready time is needed. (less than 15min) y. Digital Sync In/Out for synchronization is necessary z. Camera shall be capable of operating in ambient conditions from -10 DegC to +50 DegC aa. Camera shall mount on a standard " -20 mounting hole for use with existing equipment for set-up. bb. It is preferred that future lenses and optics are compatible with present equipment and able to be upgraded to newer technology. cc. Camera shall have on-board memory for calibrations dd. Onsite training and support for use of camera is essential due to complexity. ee. A high temperature thermographic calibration ranging from -20 degrees C to 1500 degrees C is required for the thermal camera. ff. A 25mm, 50mm and 100mm InSb lens with a 3.0-5.0 micron bandpass f/4.0 with a bayonet mount optical interface is required for this camera along with calibrations for these lenses. Interested parties capable of meeting the requirement shall submit electronic copies of their capability statement. Please limit responses to ten (10) pages or less. Vendor responses should include the following information: 1. Name, physical location, point of contact and telephone number and business size of company that will provide the item. 2. Name, physical location, point of contact and telephone number and business size of the company that will manufacture the item. 3. Capability statement showing the ability to meet the criteria identified above, including specifications of item that meets requirement, delivery lead time and product warranty information. 4. Any other relevant information that is not listed above which the Government should consider in developing its minimum specifications and finalizing its market research. 5. Contractor's DUNS Number and CAGE Number The Government will not reimburse interested parties for any costs incurred in preparation of a response to this notice. Information provided herein does not bind the Government to solicit for or award a contract. It is the responsibility of the interested parties to monitor the Federal Business Opportunities (www.fbo.gov) site for additional information pertaining to this Sources Sought Synopsis. Any proprietary information should be so marked. The written capability statement should be received no later than 2:00 p.m., Wednesday, August 14, 2013. Only electronic capability statements will be accepted and shall be emailed to the attention of Desiree Blakey at desiree.blakey@nist.gov. Faxes will not be accepted. Any questions related to this announcement shall be sent by email NO LATER THAN 2:00 p.m., Monday, August 12, 2013 to the attention of Desiree Blakey at desiree.blakey@nist.gov. Respondents will not receive any notification or feedback on any information submitted as a result of this announcement. ?