The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) intends to award a sole source fixed-price purchase order to Scintrex Limited under the authority of Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR 13.106-1(b)(1)), Simplified Acquisition Procedures, for a CG-5 digital gravity meter. The USGS requires the purchase of this unit to support research efforts in all teams that the Geophysics Unit of Menlo Park (GUMP) is involved with (GMEG, Volcano Hazards, and Earthquake Hazards Teams, as well as projects funded by numerous reimbursable projects). The purchase of this new equipment will improve our ability to make precise and accurate measurements and serves to phase out old equipment that is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. In 2006 and 2011, GUMP purchased a CG-5 digital gravity meter manufactured by Scintrex Limited. We have since used the CG-5 meters under a variety of field conditions, including an extensive calibration loop designed to test the meter's performance across a wide range of gravity values. It performed well and met all of our specifications for field operations. This product is, to the best of our knowledge, the only digital (or analog) instrument on the market that meets our needs for high precision, portability, and durability to replace our aging analog meters. Scintrex Limited is the only known source that can provide the required equipment that has all of the following unique capabilities: - A high precision (microgal level), ultra-portable, relative gravity meter, that is fast and easy to operate. This is essential to our work which demands us to: collect high-quality, high precision data, acquire data in difficult-to-access areas requiring hiking with our meters and hauling them across rugged-terrain, and amass large amounts of data in a short amount of time. - Extremely linear drift and no screw mechanism. This reduces error associated with irregular drift allowing us to maintain high-precision while performing long periods between base station measurements, and removes errors associated with 'play' in screw-mechanisms. - Automatic seismic filter and tilt correction capabilities. This significantly reduces error during times of large earthquakes (that may otherwise disrupt measurements for hours at a time), at sites susceptible to wind or wind-related (e.g. trees swaying in the wind) vibrations, and sites where ground is less stable where drift in the tilt is a problem. - The ability to perform automatic tide corrections. This is a great advantage for correcting in real-time the tide corrections and facilitates monitoring drift between base station measurements and monitoring station-to-station changes. - An 'unlimited' range (>100's mGal). This is extremely important for most of our work which exceed this limit and prevents us from having to reset the range during a single field session. This saves us time and reduces errors associated with the resetting the range. Finally, the Scintrex meters are considered to be rugged (e.g., no-beam-clamp vs. beam-clamp), which is important for us, since our field applications are performed in extremely rugged conditions using unconventional modes of transportation (helicopter, ATVs, snow mobiles, and boats) that can impart high-amplitude vibrations and jolts to the meter. Furthermore, it would be a significant impact to our team to have to deal with a new and entirely different type of meter that would require different calibration, field use, and processing procedures. Mixing and matching other meters and CG-5 meters would degrade our data quality, and impact our research because we specialize in studies requiring high-resolution data. NO SOLICITATION OR REQUEST FOR QUOTE (RFQ) IS AVAILABLE FOR THIS PROCUREMENT. Notwithstanding, any firm that believes it is capable of meeting the USGS' requirement as stated herein may submit a capability statement, proposal, or quotation, which shall be considered by the Agency (FAR 5.207(c)(16)(i)). All questions or comments regarding this procurement shall be addressed in writing to Zachary Buss, at [email protected]. This notice conforms to the requirements in place through FAC 2005-58, Effective 18 May 2012. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code for this procurement is 334513- Instruments and Related Products Manufacturing for Measuring, Displaying, and Controlling Industrial Process Variables. SBA Size Standard is 500 employees

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