F4E informs about Diagnostics Engineering Services contract

F4E’s biggest meeting room, the Aula Mar, was filled with anticipation and curiosity when members of F4E’s Diagnostics team opened the Information Meeting about the recently launched Call for tender for the provision of manufacturing engineering support for the Diagnostics systems (F4E-OFC-0905). Around 28 companies from all over Europe such as AVS (Spain), Alsyom (France), Thales Alenia Space (Italy), KT Optics (Germany) and ISQ (Portugal) attended the meeting which sought to present the main points of F4E’s requirements, answer questions from the potential bidder participants, as well as provide networking support for similar or complimentary companies.

F4E contributes to about 25% of overall ITER Diagnostics which provide essential information to protect the machine from damage, as well as control, optimise and understand the plasma. Diagnostics use a very wide range of techniques; every Diagnostic is a complete system: front-end (optics/antenna), transmission lines (optical, waveguides), back-end (electronics). While the design of F4E’s Diagnostics contribution is being conducted under Framework Partnership Agreements by European Fusion Laboratories (EFLs) most of the Diagnostics are currently under preparatory design stage and they are approaching the subsequent phases of the design. The reason behind the launch of this Call for tender is because F4E requires manufacturing engineering support during the design phases in order to ensure the designs meet the manufacturing requirements and can be manufactured within cost and schedule. The Framework Contract which F4E aims to sign with an engineering company with expertise in manufacturing of complex scientific equipment will complement the manufacturing engineering works performed by the EFLs. “We are looking to secure services from engineering experts who can evaluate if the designs that are being produced can be manufactured within cost and schedule baselines and be compliant with the ITER requirements. Concretely we will need experts to assess Diagnostics design works in terms of manufacturability, costs and risks and provide accordingly expert guidance (e.g. evaluating and analysing current designs and solutions from an industrial perspective,  proposing potential modifications to manufacturing plans, , and carrying out engineering analysis in order to substantiate the proposed modifications. F4E wants to have a stable team involved for the whole duration of the contract”, explains Sandra Julia, F4E Diagnostics Technical Officer. The duration of the contract will be four years, plus two possible extensions of one year each and the total contract effort is estimated to 33 persons per years (PPYs). “This contract will provide a good opportunity for a European company or consortium to gain knowledge about the European Diagnostics systems of ITER and develop different state of the art technologies”, highlights Anthony Courtial, F4E Market Intelligence Officer.

All documents to the Call for tender for the provision of manufacturing engineering support for the Diagnostics systems (F4E-OFC-0905), as well as potential bidders’ questions and F4E’s answers can be found on F4E’s Industry & Fusion Laboratories Portal. The deadline for submission is 6 June 2018.