Cryostat Maintenance

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Acquisition Management Division intends to negotiate with Montana Instruments Corp., located in Bozeman, Montana, on a sole source basis under the authority of FAR Subpart 13.106-1(b), soliciting from a single source, for Cryostat Maintenance. Specific Services are as follows:

NIST requires maintenance service for NIST’s Montana Instrument Cryostat. Requires replacement for the cryocooler and compressor adsorber. NAICS Code is 811310, Commercial and Industrial Machinery and Equipment Repair and Maintenance, with a Size Standard of $12.5M. NIST anticipates negotiating and awarding a firm-fixed-price purchase order to Montana Instruments Corp. for this requirement.

Interested parties that can demonstrate they could satisfy the services listed above for NIST must clearly and unambiguously identify their capability to do so in writing on or before the response date for this notice. This notice of intent is not a solicitation. Information submitted in response to this notice will be used solely to determine whether competitive procedures could be used for this acquisition. If competitive procedures are not used it is estimated that an award will be issued by 11/17/2024.

Any questions regarding this notice must be submitted in writing via email to angela.hitt@nist.gov. All responses to this notice of intent must be submitted to angela.hitt@nist.gov no later than the date and time provided herein for this posting.

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION: The cryostat maintenance required is for a NIST-owned cryostat originally manufactured by Montana Instruments. Only the original manufacturer is experienced and capable of servicing their own custom cryostat product. Failure to have this vendor do this maintenance would result in either not having maintenance done at all risking the equipment failing completely or having it maintained by another vendor risking damage to the equipment that could result in the equipment failing and NIST having to purchase a new cryostat at a much greater cost in terms of time and money.