The USDA, Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), Cotton Program in Memphis, TN intends to procure a vacuum high pressure system to be used for cotton processing in accordance with the specifications described below. The USDA intends to award a firm fixed-price contract for the entire cost of all materials and labor necessary to fabricate the system and all labor and materials necessary for installation. This will be a best value procurement. It is anticipated that the formal solicitation, Request for Proposal (RFP) 033-M-APHIS-04, will be released on or about June 25, 2004 and posted on this FEDBIZOPPS website. Please download the RFP from this website. This procurement will be a total small business set-aside. NAICS code is 333111 with a size standard of 500 employees. INTERESTED PARTIES SHOULD E-MAIL THE CONTRACTING OFFICER IN ORDER TO BE PUT ON THE SOLICITATION LIST TO RECEIVE NOTIFICATIONS OF ANY AMENDMENTS ISSUED TO THE SOLICITATION. IN THEIR E-MAIL MESSAGE, PARTIES SHOULD INCLUDE THE SOLICITATION NUMBER AS WELL AS THEIR NAME, ADDRESS, TELEPHONE NUMBER AND E-MAIL ADDRESS. A hard (printed) copy of the solicitation will not otherwise be available. Any questions or inquiries must be mailed, e-mailed or faxed to the Contracting Office, to the attention of the point of contact listed in this notice. Requests by telephone will not be honored. Point of contact: Larry Nelson, Contracting Officer, (612) 336-3225, FAX: (612) 370-2106, E-mail:
[email protected] SPECIFICATIONS: USDA, AMS, Cotton Program requests budgetary pricing for a cotton loose removal system as described in this document for the Quality Assurance Branch located at 3275 Appling Road Memphis, Tennessee. Quotes submitted must be in accordance with this announcement, federal, state, and local regulations. The selection of source for the cotton loose removal system will be based on cost first, ability to show reliability and ease of maintenance second, and reputation of distributor/manufacturer third. DEFINITIONS Contractor - as referred to in this document shall designate the company awarded the contract for providing and installing the specified system. Cotton Loose Removal System - as referred to in this document denotes a system that utilizes a high pressure closed vacuum consisting of high pressure piping, valves, controls, separator, exhauster, etc. for a complete working system. Cotton Samples - as referred to in this document denotes a cotton sample consisting of two portions, each portion is approximately six (6) inches wide, twelve (12) inches long and four (4) inches deep. Each portion weighs approximately four (4) ounces for a total sample weight of eight (8) ounces. Process Described The Quality Assurance Branch contains instruments and classers that test, grade and dispose of approximately 1000 cotton samples per hour. The Quality Assurance Branch contains 14 instrument stations that test and dispose of a small portion of the sample. There are 8 manual classer stations of which predominantly only 4 dispose of the entire sample. However, on occasion all 8 stations would be required to dispose of samples based on the daily cotton grading demands. The workstations combined will dispose of approximately 500-700 pounds of cotton per hour. Although the majority of the entire sample is disposed of at the classer station, there are times that the instrument station will be required to dispose of the entire sample. Therefore, the loose system shall provide the flexibility of disposing of an entire sample at either workstation. Both of the workstations are able to accommodate the holding of approximately two or three samples prior to disposal. Therefore, the system shall empty each of the workstations in the required amount of time so as to limit the amount of samples that are accumulated between evacuations to only three. The loose removal system at each of the workstations shall be controlled by a timed sequence activation of the valves through some type of automated control system via a PLC. A manual push button device at the HVI and classer workstations is not acceptable. Three additional loose removal stations (floor sweeps) shall be provided in three separate rooms for the manual removal of waste cotton that is accumulated on the floor. The classing lab, receiving room and the bale press room shall contain the floor sweeps. The three additional stations shall be manually controlled by a push button or similar device that shall be designed to work in conjunction with the automated loose removal described above for the HVI and classer workstations. The additional loose removal stations shall be able to accommodate the same size of sample that was outlined in the previous paragraph. The Quality Assurance Branch is required to operate under various scenarios based on the samples that are to be tested. This requires a great deal of flexibility within their lab. The following scenarios must be provided for in the design of flexibility of the installed loose removal system. A design layout and procedure shall be submitted prior to the award to verify that these requirements are satisfied. Cotton samples are received in the receiving room and transported by conveyors into the lab for manual classing. The cotton samples are then transported to the HVI for testing. Once the HVI has tested the cotton samples, the samples are transported into the receiving room and discarded at a central dumpstation. Cotton samples are received in the receiving room and transported by conveyors into the lab for HVI testing. Once the samples are tested, they are transported to the manual classing station. After the samples have received a manual classification, they are discarded at the manual classer station. There are four to eight manual classer stations that shall be used at various times for the disposal of the cotton samples. Cotton samples are received in the receiving room and transported by conveyors into the lab for manual classing. The cotton samples are then transported to the HVI for testing. Once the HVI has completed the testing, the samples are discarded at the HVI workstation. There are 14 HVI workstations that shall be capable of discarding the entire sample. Installation Requirement The piping and valve installation in the classing lab shall adhere to the following requirements. The piping and valves shall be installed within the constraints of the above ground conveyor system and the finished floor level. It shall also be contained within the support frames of the conveyor. The piping shall be attached to the floor or frame of the conveyor to provide a stationary installation. These dimensions are approximately 34 inches wide by 20 inches tall. Each valve shall accommodate the loose removal for two workstations. The piping in the receiving room shall turn into the trench within 4 feet of the separating wall of the lab and receiving room. The underground trench is approximately 4 feet deep by 4 feet wide and contains a belt conveyance system that is approximately 2 feet tall and 3 feet wide. The piping shall not interfere with the sample flow on the trench as it will be maintained for a backup system to the newly installed air loose removal system. The installation shall provide for the utilization of the trench conveyance system as a backup system. Therefore the conveyance system and the air system shall be designed and installed to allow both systems to simultaneously feed into the Quality Assurance bale press in the event of a malfunction of the Classing Office bale press. This shall require some additional sheet metal work in the Quality Assurance bale press in the form of a slide or chute that will feed the cotton into the bale press and allow the conveyor to cross feed onto the slide or into a chute. The receiver tanks will be suspended above the baler on an 8’x 20’ platform with access ladder and guard rails. The system will be PLC controlled with panel mounted operator interface for adjustment of CYCLE TIME, TANK DUMP TIME, and FLOOR FILTER CLEAN TIME. The 36”x 36” x 8” NEMA 12 panel will also include vacuum exhauster controls fire protection interlock with dry contacts, and vacuum exhauster surge controls. The exhauster and the secondary filter shall be mounted on the floor of the bale press room. The exhaust air from the exhauster shall be piped outside the building from the bale press room within close proximity of the exhauster. These locations shall be approved by a USDA representative prior to installation. Equipment Specifications The exhauster required shall be a Hoffman Model 74106 six-stage or equivalent, cast iron, centrifugal arranged for direct coupled connection to a 100 HP 3,600 RPM premium efficiency electric motor with structural steel base plate, motor pedestal, coupling guard and mounting pads, also to include: (2) Flanged Tube Adaptors 8" (2) Rubber Isolator Sleeves 8" (1) Wafer Type Butterfly Valve (1) Motor Amperage Controlled Air Bleed Anti-Surge System Exhauster flow and pressure shall provide a minimum of 1900 CFM @ 12" Hg. The receiver tanks shall be a minimum of 30" diameter x 36" tall with a Quick Change filter system, clamshell type door operation. (Controls shall be performed by an air cylinder and no gear or leaver type opening shall be acceptable.) A minimum of a 6" diameter inlet and outlet, separate inlet, outlet and reverse air valves shall be utilized. Receivers shall have reverse air type filter cleaning. A compressed air type cleaning system shall not be acceptable. The secondary filter shall adhere to the following specifications: System: Twin Receiver (Synthetic) Part No: RB-54 Shell Size: 54” Diameter Number of Bags: 40 Bag Size: 6” Diameter X 46” Long Bag Type: Multifilament Polyester 3x1 Twill. 75x65 Count Scoured Heatset Silicone Treated Filter Area: 240 sq. ft. Design Efficiency: 99.5% of 0.02 Grain/AFC of all particles larger than 2 microns Design CFM Rating: 2500 Air to Cloth Ratio: 10:1 Air to Cloth Velocity: 10 FPM Design Pressure: Not to exceed 20” Hg. Design Pressure Loss: Not to exceed 2” Hg. Discharge System: Gravity to holding container Frequency of Cleaning: (0-2 Hour) by program All valves shall be 6" diameter cast aluminum pivot type high pressure valves with a blade of Nylon-MD or machine surfaced steel minimum of 3/8" thick. The valve seals shall be HMW P/E 901-00050. The valves shall be air cylinder operated and controlled by an electro-pneumatic solenoid. (Air cylinders to have adjustable cushion option on both extension and retraction) All tubing shall be a minimum of 6" O.D and a 0.125” wall seamless aluminum. All Elbows, Bends, and Tees shall be mandrel bent with a minimum center line radius of 9" on bends and elbows and 15" center line radius on Tees. All of these fittings shall be 14 Ga. galvanized steel with smooth tag free interiors. All connections from tubing to fittings and valves shall be made with 3 bolt galvanized steel compression couplings with static strip. Electro-Pneumatic Solenoids for both valve cylinder control and receiver tank door opening/closing air cylinder shall be Mac # 411A-BOA-DM-DJAJ-1JM 120 vac, 1/4 npt style Din *B* Male End Only, with Canfield # 5107-103-0000 1/2" conduit Din *B* Connector with Light or equivalent in another brand. System controls to include: • NEMA 12 wall mounted enclosure • Fused disconnect • Non reversing contactor and solid state overload rated for 100 HP (voltage to be determined) for exhauster motor with: door-mounted Start/Stop push buttons, Green exhauster run light and Red exhauster stop light • Tank Dump Sequence controlled by door mounted timer capable of 0.3 sec to 3 hr. • Fire protection interlock and exhauster run signal • Line voltage/120 vac control transformer with primary and secondary fused protection. • Mini circuit breakers for all relay output modules of PLC. • PLC components (Manufacturer to be designated by USDA) • PLC programming • PlC programming receptacle (120 vac rated at 3 amps) • All required documentation and drawings External pilot lights as follows: EXHAUSTER RUNNING (Green) SYSTEM E-STOP (Red) TANK DUMP CYCLE (Blue) FLOOR FILTER CLEAN CYCLE (Amber) Two position switches as follows: RECEIVER TANK On/Off AUTO PICKUPS On/Off BYPASS SYSTEM-1 SYSTEM-2 Three position switches as follows: RECIEVER TANKS Tank 1/Alt./Tank 2 Push buttons as follows: EXHAUSTER/START (Green) EXHAUSTER/STOP (Red) MANUAL TANK DUMP (Black) MANUAL FLOOR FILTER CLEAN (Black) All documentation and Electrical Systems Engineer for start up.