23-007126

Post Date/ Solicitation Issue Date

August 2, 2023 12:00 pm

Closing Response Date

August 5, 2023 12:32 pm

Proposed Award Date

August 7, 2023 12:00 pm

Project Title

Turtle Shell protective shielding (Mobile)

Contracting Office

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Small Business Size Standard

750

FPDS Classification Code

6640

Delivery of Goods

approximately 6 mos. ARO

Competition Status

Brand Name Only

Single-Sole Source Determination

Exclusive licensing or industrial mobilization:
A patent, copyright, proprietary data, or licensing agreement limits competition. The essential characteristics of the Turtle Shells that limit the availability to a sole source are the custom design, manufacturing, and installation for the protection of specialized scientific equipment. Only this suggested source can furnish the requirements, to the exclusion of other sources, because the Turtle Shell is a patented product not available from other vendors. We have other Turtle Shell products protecting different eequioment in the lab and those products have performed at or above our expectations. We have been working in this field for many years and specifically with the Turtle Shell Proteective systems. TurtleShell Industries is the only company that can provide and fully integrate their product within our current microscope(s) environments. Our knowledge of the products in this field has been updated frequently via continuously reviewing scientific articles and attending major international and domestic meetings. Our market research also indicated that no other suppliers are offer similar quality protection. Additionally, a number of our NIH scientists were all in agreement that the best course of action is to acquire the protection as soon as possible. Thus, we are confident in our judgement of pursuing a sole source acquisition is correct.

Background/Description of Requirement

1. Statement of Need and Purpose: NIMH requires protective shielding to place above designated high-value mission-critical laboratory equipment to mitigate the risk of damage during facility water-based emergency events. The protective shielding will be installed above designated equipment to deflect and/or divert water to reduce the risk of damage to the equipment.

2. Background Information and Objective:  While leaks and floods originating from infrastructure failures and required maintenance activities are not a new risk and have been historically experienced, recently on December 24 and 25, 2022 there were two catastrophic flood events at the NIH Bethesda Campus Building 35 due to the outdoor freezing cold temperatures. The cold air froze a series of reheat coils and the chilled water coil in primary equipment Air Handler Unit “6B” resulting in ruptures of all frozen piping. The flood events caused immense damage to infrastructure and equipment, resulting in the loss of millions of dollars of mission-critical equipment, disrupting research operations, and impacting staff and trainee careers due to the recovery time needed to obtain replacement equipment (most of which had highly customized elements). The objective is to better protect mission critical and high-value institute assets that are at risk from infrastructure failures. This Equipment has wheels on it allowing the EM Team to deploy it to mitigate water intrusion in unprotected equipment.

1. Salient characteristics The protective shielding must be able to protect identified elements from water and debris hazards from above spaces by means of deflection and/or diversion. The design allows the Mobile Turtle Shell to be deployed throughout the building to mitigate and prevent water intrusion in sensitive lab equipment.

The protective shielding frame must be strong and mounted securely to the self-supporting frame with wheels to ensure stability. The polycarbonate must have a CC-1 rating for construction applications and be available in clear and transluscent options to allow the desired amount of light to pass through based on location requirements. The product must meet the UL94 Flamability Standard.