Single Source Justification- CO SIGNED.pdf

Single Source Justification (Simplified Acquisition)

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Section A: General Contract Information

Is this a Bridge Action as defined in the AF Bridge Action Reduction Plan? Yes No

Contracting Activity: Base Support Contracting Office (PZIBA) 1940 Allbrook Dr., Bldg. 1, Rm 109 Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH 45433-5344

Project/Program Name: Air Force Institute of Technology Metal Additive Manufacturing Research

Purchase Request / Local ID Number: FE230032540429, Acoustic Mixer

Estimated Contract Cost (including Options): $50,000.00

Section B: Description of the Supplies/Services Required

Under the contemplated FFP contract, ResodynAcoustic Mixers will provide one (1) LabRAM II acoustic mixer for use by the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) Metal Additive Manufacturing Lab. The acoustic mixer must be able to adequately support the research needs of the Metal Additive Manufacturing Lab, including handling large amounts of metal powders and efficiently and uniformly blending the alloys together.

Estimated Total Price: $50,000.00

United States Working Capital Funds (4930) will fund this requirement.

Delivery and installation will take place within 90 days after receipt of award.

Section C: Justification for Soliciting from a Single Source or Brand Name

This acquisition is for the purchase of one (1) ResodynAcoustic Mixer LabRAM II.

An integral part of the metal additive manufacturing research at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) is the creation of novel metal alloys. It is imperative that the alloy mixtures are properly combined, or they will not print or perform adequately, and the reporting will be inaccurate. Currently the Metal Additive Manufacturing Lab has a FlackTek SpeedMixer DAC 250.1 FVZ-K that has a max capacity of 250 grams. Due to this low capacity, it takes a long time to create new alloys. A mixer with a higher capacity such as the LabRAM II's 1 kilogram would expedite the process greatly. Additionally, past results with the current dual asymmetrical centrifuge (DAC) mixer have shown low uniformity, not due to element properties. An acoustic mixer would solve this problem as well, because the ResodynAcoustic Mixer technology is able to use unique low-energy acoustic interactions to uniformly blend nearly any combination of powders.

Because of the volume of the Metal Additive Manufacturing Lab's metal printers' powder beds, several kilograms of powder are used at a time. This amount increases rapidly when the volume and height of printed parts increases. As such, the alternate option of a small batch acoustic mixer up to 300 grams of material will not suffice. That would exponentially increase the lead time before any prints, pushing back student research and consuming burdensome amounts of staff and faculty time.

Acquiring a different company's acoustic mixer for the Metal Additive Manufacturing Lab would result in lower efficiency and delays to research. This is mostly due to the lower capacity of 300g vs 1000g requiring more than three times the amount of time preparing new alloys to print. Additionally, the added certainty of the optimal mixing from the acoustic mixer makes it a more viable option than another company's large but non-acoustic mixer, such as the current centrifugal mixer. The Metal Additive Manufacturing Lab alloys are used for AFIT Master of Science and PhD students for research to complete their curriculum and earn degrees. It is vital that the work for the students' research

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Accordingly, ResodynAcoustic Mixers is the only manufacturer capable of providing the supplies described in Section III without the U.S. Air Force experiencing unacceptable delays and substantial duplication of cost that could not be expected to be recovered through competition.

Section D: Efforts to Obtain Competition

Market research was conducted to identify companies that offered the same or similar acoustic mixers that could meet the customer's requirement. No other companies were found other than ResodynAcoustic Mixers that could meet the requirement without substantial duplication of time and effort, and unacceptable delays to the Government.

AFIT personnel consulted with researchers and industry contacts, and worked closely with other governmental laboratories in an attempt to locate capable vendors. Other vendors were only able to provide mixers that could hold up to 300g of material, or did not supply acoustic mixers at all.

GSA Advantage yielded no results that could meet all required specifications. A sources sought post was made on SAM on March 7, 2024. Resodyn Acoustic Mixers was the only contractor that responded in the 14 days after the post was made.

Section E: Steps to Preclude Future Single Source or Brand Name Awards

Because this RAM technolgoy is proprietary to ResodynAcoustic Mixers, the Government must pursue research and development either internally (AFIT, AFRL, etc.) or with commercial vendors in order to develop an alternate system that is able to perform the functions necessary to support the research.

Section F: Contracting Officer's Determination

I have determined, in accordance with FAR 13.106-1(b)(1), that the circumstances of this contract action deem only a single source is reasonably available.

Date

26-Mar-2024

Typed Name and Rank/Grade of Contracting Officer

JESSICA M. STAMPER GS-12

Signature of Contracting Officer

April 2021 Page of Section A: General Contract Information Is this a Bridge Action as defined in the AF Bridge Action Reduction Plan?

Section B: Description of the Supplies/Services Required Section C: Justification for Soliciting from a Single Source or Brand Name Section D: Efforts to Obtain Competition Section E: Steps to Preclude Future Single Source or Brand Name Awards Section F: Contracting Officer's Determination I have determined, in accordance with FAR 13.106-1(b)(1), that the circumstances of this contract action deem only a single source is reasonably available.

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1940 Allbrook Dr., Bldg. 1, Rm 109 Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, OH 45433-5344