RFP 387931RLP.pdf

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory Procurement Department

Finance Section 605-431-2905 rhiannon@fnal.gov

Date:

Request for Proposal #:

Proposals Due:

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL - THIS IS NOT A PURCHASE ORDER

Fermi Forward Discovery Group, LLC (FFDG) anticipates procurement of the following assemblies for Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). Fermilab Requests your firm-fixed price proposal for the following:

Pg. 1 of 2

ITEM QTY. UNIT PRICE LEAD TIME

Total Extended Proposal Price:

Company Name:

Address:

Terms: Net 30 FOB: Fermilab Signature & Date: Rhiannon Patterson - Procurement Specialist III

1 1 $

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

October 11, 2026

RFP 387931RLP

October 28, 2026

DESCRIPTION

5W @4.2k Pulse Tube CryoCooler according to specification beginning on page three (3) of this request for proposal.

Exceptions to specifications and extra charges for containers, tooling, etc. must be clearly indicated

MATERIALS, SUPPLIES OR SERVICES RESULTING FROM

THIS QUOTE ARE FOR WORK DONE UNDER PRIME

CONTRACT NO. 89243024CSC000002 WITH THE UNITED

STATES DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY. ANY ITEMS COVERED

BY G.S.A. CONTRACTS SHOULD BE SO INDICATED.

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory / Kirk and Pine Street / P.O. Box 500 / Batavia, IL 60510 / www.fnal.gov / fermilab@fnal.gov Managed by Fermi Forward Discovery Group, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science

RFP # 387931RLP Pg. 2 of 2

The units will ship to:

Fermilab Receiving Warehouse 2 Kirk Rd and Wilson St Batavia, IL 60510 United States

Basis for Subcontract Award

FFDG General Terms and Conditions for Commercial Products and Commercial Services (08.2025)

Offers to include F.O.B. Fermilab delivery terms. All freight charges must be included in your quotation.

The following Representations must be completed and returned with your proposal:

SARC - Subcontractor Annual Reps & Certs (Rev. 8) PUR-466 - Proposal Certifications ( Rev. 5 Dated 10/14/2025)

Proposals shall be submitted by 5pm CDT October 28, 2026.

All contractual questions shall be directed to:

Rhiannon Patterson

Procurement Specialist III rhiannon@fnal.gov

605-431-2905

This is a best value source selection. Award shall be made to the supplier who is deemed responsible by FFDG, whose proposal conforms to the solicitation’s requirements, and is judged to represent best value to FFDG. The best value is represented by the lowest price of technically acceptable offerors. FFDG intends to award without discussions.

The following terms and conditions shall become a part of any subsequent purchase order/subcontract resulting from this solicitation.

NOTE TO OFFERORS: Please be advised that any exceptions to the specifications or to FFDG's terms and conditions may cause your proposal to be disqualified with no further consideration for an award. Any exceptions or additional terms noted on a quote form will not be considered and are hereby expressly rejected. Likewise, any references - whether through language or hyperlink - to additional terms and conditions are not accepted and are similarly rejected.

The RFP response shall include a completed RFP page, SARC Form, and a PUR-466 Form.

Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory / Kirk and Pine Street / P.O. Box 500 / Batavia, IL 60510 / www.fnal.gov / fermilab@fnal.gov Managed by Fermi Forward Discovery Group, LLC for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science mailto:rhiannon@fnal.gov

3MeV Project Cryocooler Procurement Specification

September 17, 2026 Rev - 1

Illinois Accelerator Research Center

3MeV Project Cryocooler Procurement Specification

Document Purpose

The purpose of this document, is to define the procurement requirements for the cryocooler to be purchased by the Illinois Accelerator Research Center (IARC) at Fermilab. This document outlines quantities of items to be quoted, options for quote, technical requirements, and vendor requirements.

Conduction Cooling with Cryocoolers

SRF cavities are used for electron beam accelerators which can be used for a variety of applications. SRF cavities operate at cryogenic temperatures and are conventionally cooled by liquid helium held near 2-4.5K. This requires lots of cryogenic infrastructure which isn’t ideal for industrial applications.

Conduction cooling an SRF cavity by directly connecting to a closed cycle cryocooler with a thermally conductive link will eliminate the need for the conventional helium bath.

This elimination leads to dramatic simplification of the accelerator: a liquid helium inventory, a helium recovery/storage system, and a helium pressure vessel and relief design is no longer needed, the cryogenics becomes very reliable (commercial 4 K cryocoolers have mean time between maintenance of > 20,000hrs (2.3 years), safe (no liquid helium safety and oxygen deficiency hazards), and simple to operate (cryocoolers turn on/off with push of a button), and significantly reduced footprint as well as added option of portability because all of the cryogenics is integrated into the cryomodule. [1]

The SRF cavity for this system will have a Niobium-Tin coating in order to raise the superconducting temperature to around 4.2 Kelvin. This project is integrating pulse-tube cryocoolers into a SRF cryomodule to cool down the cavities to 4.2K to reach these superconducting temperatures.

Heat Load

The cryostat has two thermal intercept stages. The temperature of the first stage is 4.2K and the temperature of the second stage is 45K. The project team performed simulations and analysis to calculate the heat load generated by the accelerator and the cooling capacity needed at each of these stages.

The heat load of the 4.2K stage is primarily made up of heat generated by the RF losses in the cavity and coupler along with other smaller losses from the particle beam. The total cooling capacity needed at this stage is 5W.

The heat load of the 45K stage consists of all other heat generated from the system. The total cooling capacity needed at this stage is 30W.

Vibration Sensitivity

As noted above this project must utilize a Niobium-Tin coated cavity in order to achieve a superconducting state at 4.2K. The Niobium-Tin coating is a sensitive thin-film coating on the inside of the cavity that is susceptible to vibrations.

In order to cool these cavities effectively without disturbing the coating a pulse-tube cryocooler must be used as these produce lower vibrations than other configurations.

Standard Gifford-McMahon (GMM) cryocoolers produce a larger amount of vibration, compared to a pulse-tube cryocooler, which is not suitable for this application.

The IARC @ Fermilab team has demonstrated on a previous project that pulse-tube cryocoolers work for Niobium-Tin coated cavities.

Size Constraints

This accelerator is required to fit in a trailer for mobile applications. As a result, this system shall be compact and must fit into a 28.5ft long trailer. The trailer will contain the cryostat, which houses the cryocooler and a 9-cell 1.3GHz cavity, the power supplies, compressors, radiation shielding, and all other peripheral equipment required to operate the accelerator.

Due to the amount of equipment required, the cryostat (including cryocoolers) is constrained to 2.1m long x 1.2m wide x 2m tall. Due to the compact size of the cryostat, it can house up to eight cryocoolers distributed across the cryostat.

Figure 1: Project Cryostat

The cryocoolers will connect to high-throughput flexible copper straps, which will then connect to the high purity aluminum cooling structure which is attached to the superconducting cavity.

Power Consumption

As this system will be used for mobile applications, power consumption of the entire system is a constraining factor. The power consumption of the cryocoolers shall be 30kW per unit or less.

Specifications

The specifications required for the cryocoolers are stated below:

1. Operating temperature of 4.2K or lower

2. First stage capacity of greater than, or equal to, 5 Watts @ 4.2K

3. Second stage cooling capacity of greater than, or equal to, 30W @ 45K

4. Number of units: 1 maximum

5. Pulse-Tube configuration is required to limit vibrations on SRF Cavity

6. Size constraints:

a) Diameter of mounting flange: 10in diameter maximum

b) Height of room temperature side: 30in maximum

c) Height of cold side: 20in maximum

d) Compressor dimensions: 6ft x 6ft x 4ft maximum

7. Power Requirements: 30kW maximum

8. Cold stage (4K) shall offer as much surface area as feasible for mounting thermal links.

A cold head sized to match the other largest feature of the cryocooler would be sufficient. As allowed by internal design features, mounting holes to both 40K and 4K heads shall be through holes to allow for ideal torque application. Any threaded holes in copper should be as large of a size as reasonable, or use HELICOIL’s, to improve tightening ability of studs which attach the cooling links. Fermilab anticipates using M6 studs with 22mm diameter Belville washers, and packing the bolts as tightly as possible to maximize contact area is desired.

The vendor shall include the following in the quote:

1. Cold head

2. Compressor

3. Gas lines

4. Vibration Dampening Bellows

5. Instrumentation Cables

6. Power Cables