FA9101-25-Q-Burst_Diaphragm-Sources Sought-Final.pdf

22 Apr 25

MEMORANDUM FOR VENDORS REGISTERED UNDER NAICS CODE 332999 – ALL

OTHER MISCELLANEOUS FABRICATED METAL PRODUCT MANUFACTURING

FROM: AFMC/AFTC/PZIA (Arnold)

SUBJECT: FA9101-25-Q-Burst_Diaphragm - Sources Sought Market Research Request

Disclaimer:

This sources sought notice is for information purposes to assist the Government in developing an acquisition strategy, if funding is received. It does not constitute a solicitation and shall not be construed as a commitment by the Government; therefore, this is not a request for quote / proposal. Responses in any form are not offers or quotes and the Government is under no obligation to award a contract / agreement as a result of this announcement. No funds are available to pay for preparation of responses to this announcement. Any information submitted by respondents to this request is strictly voluntary.

North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code:

The anticipated NAICS code for this requirement is 332999 – All Other Miscellaneous Fabricated Metal

Product Manufacturing with the business size standard of 750 EMP.

PSC Code: 3695 – Miscellaneous Special Industry Machinery

Requirement Overview:

Hypervelocity Wind Tunnel No. 9 (Tunnel 9) is located in White Oak, Maryland and is part of United States

Air Force Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC). It is a unique world-class ground-test facility with a blowdown capability that uses gaseous nitrogen as the working fluid and operates at Mach numbers of 7, 8, 10, 14, and 18. Tunnel 9 provides critical aerodynamic test and evaluation (T&E) data necessary for vehicle development. Tunnel 9 is used for hypersonic ground testing and the validation of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations.

The burst diaphragms are critical components to testing operations and are a consumable (two diaphragms per run). A sufficient inventory is critical to continuing operation of the Tunnel and support testing operations.

Atch 1 and Atch 2 contains engineering drawings describing the burst diaphragms (Drawing # 77-1088 and

80-1126). The current burst diaphragms are made from Stainless Steel Type 304 Annealed Plate/Sheet

(ASTM A666), Tantalum Alloy (Ta-10W) Annealed Plate/Sheet (ASTM B708), and Niobium-Hafnium

Alloy (C-103) Annealed Plate/Sheet (ASTM B654).

Government Market Research Request from Vendor

1. Provide supporting documentation / rationale justifying the vendor’s capability of meeting this requirement in the following areas of technical interest:

a. Describe your company’s capability to manufacture the three different materials used to make the burst diaphragms. Please include example of parts made from Stainless Steel

DEPARTMENT OF THE AIR FORCE

HEADQUARTERS AIR FORCE TEST CENTER (AFMC)

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE CALIFORNIA

Type 304 Annealed (ASTM A666), Tantalum Alloy (Ta-10W) Annealed (ASTM B708), and Niobium-Hafnium Alloy (C-103) Annealed (ASTM B654).

i.

b. Describe how your company would procure plate/sheet stock of Stainless-Steel Type 304

Annealed (ASTM A666), Tantalum Alloy (Ta-10W) Annealed (ASTM B708), and

Niobium-Hafnium Alloy (C-103) Annealed (ASTM B654) material.

c. Describe how your company would assess and certify the material properties of all material purchased. Reported material properties at minimum shall include chemical composition, yield strength, tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, and percent elongation.

d. State your company’s understanding of issues that may be associated with the procurement of Tantalum Alloy (Ta-10W) Annealed (ASTM B708), and Niobium-

Hafnium Alloy (C-103) Annealed (ASTM B654) material in a short time frame (1 week to 2 months), and state how these issues are to be overcome.

e. Has your company, within the past five years, purchased Tantalum Alloy (Ta-10W)

Annealed (ASTM B708)? If so, (a) state your source(s) of Tantalum Alloy (Ta-10W)

Annealed (ASTM B708) and state the current availability of this material at each source;

(b) state the range of material chemical composition, yield strength, tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, and percent elongation of the purchased material; (c) state the lot-to-lot variability in chemical composition, yield strength, tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, and percent elongation.

f. Has your company, within the past five years, purchased Niobium-Hafnium Alloy (C-

103) Annealed (ASTM B654)? If so, (a) state your source(s) of Niobium-Hafnium Alloy

(C-103) Annealed (ASTM B654) and state the current availability of this material at each source; (b) state the range of material chemical composition, yield strength, tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, and percent elongation of the purchased material; (c) state the lot-to-lot variability in chemical composition, yield strength, tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, and percent elongation.

g. Has your company, within the past five years, purchased Stainless Steel Type 304

Annealed (ASTM A666)? If so, (a) state your source(s) of Stainless Steel Type 304

Annealed (ASTM A666) and state the current availability of this material at each source;

(b) state the range of material chemical composition, yield strength, tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, and percent elongation of the purchased material; (c) state the lot-to-lot variability in chemical composition, yield strength, tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, and percent elongation.

h. Describe your company’s experience in minimizing part-to-part variability of large quantities of parts.

i. What is a reasonable percent variation of parts to be expected out of tolerance with your manufacturing process?

j. As an example, please provide a cost estimate for the manufacture of 30 of each burst diaphragm (70-1088-1, 70-1088-3, 70-1088-11, 70-1088-12, 70-1088-13, 80-1126-1, 80-

1126-5, 80-1126-6, and 80-1126-7) for a total of 270 burst diaphragm. Please describe your plan and schedule to manufacture these 270 burst diaphragms.

k. For Tantalum Alloy (Ta-10W) Annealed (ASTM B708), and Niobium-Hafnium Alloy

(C-103) Annealed (ASTM B654) burst diaphragms, would the manufacturer be interested in using Government Furnished Material for the plate/sheet stock?

l. Procurement for burst diaphragms would be on a rolling basis as inventory is used for testing operations. Due to the uncertainty of testing conditions, each burst diaphragm order will have varying quantities of each type of diaphragm. With these varying order quantities, what issues do you foresee in procurement of materials and manufacturing to allow delivery within 3 to 4 months from order date?

i. .

m. What quality assurance processes does your company employ?

n. Is your company interested in competing for a portion or all types of burst diaphragms procurement?

2. If the vendor has been awarded previous contract(s) and / or agreements that are similar in nature, provide details.

a.

3. Provide business CAGE code and business size – large or small. If a small business, identify if the business is a HUBZone, 8(a), SDVOSB, WOSB, or EDWOSB.

4. If available, identify pre-existing contract vehicle(s) that would be available to the Government for the procurement of the requirement such as: DoD ESI, General Service Administration (GSA)

Federal Supply Schedules, NASA SEWP, or any other decentralized contract vehicle the

Government could utilize.

5. If the Government determined to utilize a FAR based contract to procure the requirement, provide an estimated total evaluated price.

6. Identify subcontractor(s) that would be needed to support this requirement, if any.

7. If the Government made the determination to procure the requirement using authority 10 U.S.C.

4022 - Authority of the Department of Defense to carry out certain prototype projects, provide supporting documentation justifying how the company would satisfy at least one criteria of the

Appropriate Use of Authority requirement detailed in (d)(1)(A)-(C) within the authority:

(A) There is at least one nontraditional defense contractor or nonprofit research institution participating to a significant extent in the prototype project.

(B) All significant participants in the transaction other than the Federal Government are small businesses (including small businesses participating in a program described under section 9 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 638)) or nontraditional defense contractors.

(C) At least one third of the total cost of the prototype project is to be paid out of funds provided by sources other than the Federal Government.

8. If the Government determined to procure the requirement utilizing 10 U.S.C. 4022, provide an estimated cost to develop a prototype for this requirement, and specify which prototype definition, or combination of definitions, that best fits the vendor’s vision of prototype development. Prototype definition – 10 U.S.C 4022 (e)(5)(A)-(F):

(A) a proof of concept, model, or process, including a business process;

(B) reverse engineering to address obsolescence;

(C) a pilot or novel application of commercial technologies for defense purposes;

(D) agile development activity;

(E) the creation, design, development, or demonstration of operational utility; or

(F) any combination of subparagraphs (A) through (E).

9. If the Government determined to procure the requirement utilizing 10 U.S.C. 4022, provide an estimated cost to develop the finalized requirement in the follow-on production phase once the prototype was determined successful (10 U.S.C. 4022(f)).

10. Provide any notable standard business practices in regards to data rights and intellectual property pertaining to the prototype and follow-on production phase.

NOTE:

- Upon receipt of vendor’s submission, the Agreements Officer (AO) / Contracting Officer (CO) will pull the vendor’s NIST SP 800-171 Assessment date and score. The vendor’s assessment date shall be no older than three (3) years old to receive other than Distribution A documentation, if other than Distribution A documentation arises.

- The AO / CO will pull and consider the vendor’s Supplier Performance Risk System (SPRS)

Supplier Risk score from Procurement Integrated Enterprise Environment (PIEE) upon receipt of submission.

Submission Details:

- Submit Responses To: greggory.jones.4@us.af.mil

- Submission Due Date: 6 May 2025, 10:00 AM CST mailto:greggory.jones.4@us.af.mil

- Submission Requirements: 11 – 12 Font Size, no more than 10 pages (excluding cover page), Word or PowerPoint

Attachments:

- Atch 1 - Burst_Diaphragm_SOW-Final.docx

- Atch 2 - 77-1088.pdf

- Atch 3 - 80-1126.pdf

GREGGORY C. JONES, NH-III, DAF

Contracting Officer / Agreements Officer