66--MITSUBISHI EA8 SINKER EDM

NASA/MSFC has a requirement for quantity one (1) Mitsubishi EA8 Sinker EDM. NASA/MSFC intends to purchase the items from Kearney Machinery & Supply Inc. for the following reasons: The MSFC building 4705 machine shop posses a larger version of this die sinker (a Mitsubishi EA12) which was used to develop the specimen notching tooling and control programming required to manufacture fracture mechanics and nondestructive evaluation (NDE) test specimens for the Ares I Upper Stage manufacturing processes demonstration programs. The EA12 system is larger than required for test specimen machining, but it was the only one available on the Center which could do this type of work. Of particular importance is the CNC controlled C axis (which allows the system to produce notch shapes a standard plunge die sinker cannot produce) and the burn cycle control program (which automatically monitors the conductivity of the burn and updates the cutting parameters every few milliseconds to produce a consistent surface finish, part to part). Due to the anticipated Ares I Upper Stage manufacturing processes development and demonstration workload/timeline, the Materials and Processes Laboratory Metals Engineering Branch Processes Development Team must replace its old plunge die sinker. 1) The programming and tooling developed on the Mitsubishi EA12 EDM Die Sinker is directly transferable to the smaller EA8 die sinker, which fits within the Processes Development Team’s budget and available work space. This programming and tooling would not be directly transferable to another manufacturer’s die sinker. 2) Transferring the programming and tooling developed on the EA12 Die Sinker to another manufacturer’s die sinker would require extensive operator training as well as programming and tooling redevelopment. This time is not available within the Ares I Upper Stage manufacturing processes demonstration programs timeline. 3) If the programming and tooling developed on the EA12 Die Sinker were successfully transferred to another manufacturer’s die sinker, future lessons learned from the additional specimen machining would not be directly transferable back to the EA12 Die Sinker. Transferring the lessons learned back to the EA12 Die Sinker would once again require additional programming and tooling changes. This time is not available within the Ares I Upper Stage manufacturing processes demonstration programs timeline. 4) Choosing another manufacturer’s Die Sinker would reduce redundancy and increase risk to the Ares I Upper Stage manufacturing processes demonstration programs by effectively eliminating the existing EA12 Die Sinker as a back-up resource for producing specimens during schedule backlogs or for producing specimens if the EM30 die sinker were to break down. There is not sufficient schedule margin to accommodate such as risk. 5) According to the manufacturer, Mitsubishi signs contractual agreements with its dealers for territorial areas of the United States. For the state of Alabama, Mitsubishi/ MC Machinery Systems (the manufacturer and exclusive American distributors, respectively) appointed Kearney Machinery located in Birmingham, AL. No direct or competing sales efforts exist within this region. Summary: Only a Mitsubishi die sinker directly compatible with the existing EA12 Die Sinker will satisfy the government’s minimum requirements for this request and such equipment is only available to MSFC from Kearney Machinery and Supply, Inc. The Government intends to acquire a commercial item using FAR Part 12. Interested organizations may submit their capabilities and qualifications to perform the effort in writing to the identified point of contact not later than 4:30 p.m. local time on 09/03/07. Such capabilities/qualifications will be evaluated solely for the purpose of determining whether or not to conduct this procurement on a competitive basis. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed effort on a full and open competition basis, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the government. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice. An Ombudsman has been appointed. See NASA Specific Note "B". Any referenced notes may be viewed at the following URLs linked below.