SATPC0036281 Tab 07 RDSS_Redacted.pdf

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NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

NASA SHARED SERVICES CENTER

RECOMMENDATION AND DETERMINATION TO SOLICIT FROM ONE SOURCE

OR BRAND NAME

PICK ONE

Sole Source:

☒I recommend that NASA, NASA Shared Services Center negotiate with Cascade TEK Solutions, Inc.

only for Cascade TEK Thermal Oven . The total estimated cost of this effort is and the estimated period of performance or lead-time for delivery is 30 Days ARO.

This recommendation is for the acquisition of supplies or services determined to be reasonably available from only one source/only one manufacture. Competition is impractical for the following reasons (please answer the questions below):

1. What are the reasons for soliciting only the suggested source/suggested brand name? Please provide the unique characteristics of the items or services along with the supporting rationale and the market research performed to substantiate your reason for the suggested source/brand name.

The thermal vacuum lab at NASA Langley building 1250, medium high bay currently houses three SVO- 10T thermal vacuum ovens manufactured by CascadeTEK, Inc. To increase testing throughout for multiple flight projects, and provide additional testing capabilities that are not currently available with this form factor, an additional oven is required. This oven will be integrated into a single control computer source using common control software provided by Cascade. Procurement of this brand name thermal vacuum oven maintains consistency in terms of operation, spare parts, performance, training, networking, and data collection. All of these things increase operational reliability, efficiency and safety.

CascadeTEK is familiar with the current hardware and has provided quotes and a description of anticipated work.To be clear, a standard catalog CascadeTEK SVO-10T thermal vacuum oven will be modified with upgrade options including an integrated platen, capable of achieving temperatures -100°C to +260°C to accommodate thermal cycle testing, bake out, and dry heat microbial reduction (DHMR) for space flight projects. The oven will also be modified to accommodate government-furnished, Thermoelectric Quartz Crystal Microbalance (TQCM) (CrystalTek Model 56S/T/66TR/46E/T/106CA) and Residual Gas Analyzer (RGA) (SRS-200) to accommodate contamination engineering assessment of bake out performance. All chamber controls and data acquisition are provided by CascadeTEK and can be both accessed via the chamber front control panel and also via supplied interface software loaded onto an independent government-furnished computer. This same system control PC will interface with an existing CascadeTEK SVO-10T thermal vacuum oven and will provide a single interface for both systems. Additional options include a custom 6” con-flat rear access port, vacuum gauge and controller upgrades to align with existing systems, installation of a viewing window and a Honeywell 12-channel datalogger with 11 thermocouple feedthrough and other ancillary features. All these upgrades are beyond the standard unit and are required to meet the intended use of the equipment for government testing.

CascadeTEK is uniquely qualified for these tasks based on their work in developing the SVO-10T turbo vacuum oven and their specialized knowledge required to modify the standard SVO-10T unit with the necessary options to meet the laboratories requirements. CascadeTEK is well known throughout the thermal testing industry for its expertise in the design, analysis, and fabrication of high-performance thermal vacuum ovens. The LaRC Engineering Directorate (ED) has developed a number of small space

Page 2 V2.0 3-15-2017 flight components, and projects within the directorate have utilized and been successful testing with the current vacuum oven produced by CascadeTEK. These experiences have fostered a broad respect for CascadeTEK’s capabilities and the robust nature of this system for both thermal cycle testing and materials pre-conditioning for flight hardware planned for operation in the harsh environment of space.CascadeTEK is the only known provider of this SVO-10T oven with the listed modifications indicated above.

2. What is the impact to the government if another vendor/brand is used? Include any dollar, schedule, or compatibility impacts if possible.

Since no known other vendor provides the SVO-10T thermal vacuum oven there has been no direct price comparisons made based on equipment. However if a different thermal vacuum oven where to be selected then the manpower costs required to produce new processes such as standard operating procedures, interface control documentation, calibration procedures and training guides would be substantial. Additionally with no heritage for this new equipment use of it for critical flight hardware testing would be limited until such a time that proper acceptance testing and reliability assessment could be completed. Further, any new thermal vacuum oven brand would be outfitted with new data acquisition equipment which must be kept in calibration for the validity of flight test data. This too would require the development of new procedures and processes. Finally with any new system a supply of spares must be established in order to eliminate or reduce the amount of down time during testing in the event of a support equipment failure. These spares would be any addition materials cost to put the system into service. It is difficult to put a direct cost onto all of these items but it is strongly believed that the impact to cost, schedule and compatibility with other existing laboratory hardware and processes would be significant.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS:

7/25/24

Technical User Name Date

Title

Office