The Office of Acquisition and Agreements Management (OAAM), Acquisition Management Division (AMD) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), on behalf of the Special Programs Office, intends to negotiate on a sole source basis with Picarro, Inc. of Santa Clara, CA, for the repair of two cavity ring-down spectroscopic analyzers.

NIST purchased Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopic (CRDS) Analyzers as parts of complete greenhouse gas measurement systems.  One is a Picarro Model G2401 CO2/CO/CH4/H2O analyzer. The second is Picarro Model 2301 CO2/CH4/H2O analyzer. The analyzers are both manufactured by Picarro, Inc.

The first (G2401) system has been operating in a field installation in Mashpee, Massachusetts.  It has been used to measure atmospheric water vapor (H2O), carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) concentrations. In spring of 2020, after several malfunctions at the site (including possibly liquid water entering the analyzer), the CO measurements began reading negative values, several hundred parts per billion (ppb) lower than the known concentration of CO from a standard gas. One-minute precision for CO was at 30 ppb (the spec is 1 ppb), when a standard gas is introduced to the system for 10 minutes the analyzer drifts from -300 ppb to -200 ppb.

The second (G2301) system was held in storage for four years prior to unpacking. During recent lab testing, when sampling air from a standard gas cylinder, it showed that it was not meeting drift specifications for CO2. Over 24 hours, the system showed drift of up to 300 ppb (the specification is <120 ppb).

The Contractor shall provide all labor, material, parts, and equipment necessary to repair the CRDS analyzer systems and return the systems to their original performance specifications.

These analyzers are deployed in an existing rack-based system and with a communications protocol for data collection and system monitoring and control already developed.  These analyzers must satisfy very specific precision requirements for achieving the goals of NIST’s research program, must be able to communicate properly with the existing software interface to ensure they are functional within the rack based system upon replacement, and must be able to sustain long-term operation with minimal repair or maintenance by a technician (months between visits, even years), as well as remote operation capability, remote communications through the internet and measurement stability with minimal use of calibration gases on-site.  

Picarro, Inc. is the sole manufacturer and distributor of the analyzers and has proprietary rights to all hardware and software relevant to the analyzers. Picarro has no distributors or third party associates . Picarro is the only company that can repair both analyzers and guarantee that the analyzers will be returned to their performance specifications, and, upon return to the greenhouse gas measurement system, will maintain the integrity of the data produced by the system. The accuracy and specificity of the measurements are critical to producing research quality data. 

This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotations; however, responses received by June 1, 2021, will be considered by the Government. Any party responding to this notice must provide written documentation from Picarro, that Picarro has agreed to work with the Contractor to provide the required analyzer repairs.

A determination by the Government to compete this requirement 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 compete this requirement.