NCAR/ATD - DFS Work Guidelines

NCAR/ATD Home \| Research Facilities \| Facility Requests \| Field Projects \| Research Data \| ATD Software

DESIGN AND FABRICATION SERVICES ATD's Design and Fabrication Services (DFS) provides engineering design and instrument equipment fabrication services to all UCAR/NCAR divisions. The following guidelines establish a framework for decision-making by DFS and ATD management regarding the acceptance of outside work by DFS. "Outside" work is defined as any work from sources other than NCAR and UCAR staff (e.g., from UCAR member or non-UCAR member universities, or from government agencies other than NSF).
Guidelines for Work to be accepted by DFS	DFS Funding DFS funding is based primarily on two components: 1) NSF base funding for mechanical design staff and a portion of the logistics staff; 2) Chargeback to all customers for Machine Shop services, calculated as an hourly rate that includes machinist salary and benefits, non-labor expenses, equipment maintenance/reserve, and indirect costs applied. The chargeback rate is recomputed annually and approved by NSF. The rate is presently $59 per hour.

Work Acceptance Policy

DFS will accept work from the organizations shown in Table 1, but will apply priorities as indicated (Priority A being the highest). In practice, the priorities will be applied as follows: Priority E work will be accepted only if it will not interfere with Priority A, B and C work, etc.

Special Provision for Outside Customers

DFS costs will be charged to all customers as indicated in Table 1. For each project for outside customers, a written work statement and detailed cost estimate will be prepared by DFS and approved by the ATD director. In addition, the customers written agreement to these will be obtained before the start of work. All DFS work for outside customers will be performed strictly on either a "time-and-materials" or a "time-and-materials, not-to-exceed" basis. DFS will closely track and extrapolate the costs of each such project and will give the customer at least one week's advance notice of the date when it expects the cost limit to be reached. The project cost limit will not be exceeded by DFS without written authorization from the customer or the ATD Director.

Table 1
Priority	Customer Organization	Sponsor of Customer Project	Charges to Customer
Priority	Customer Organization	Sponsor of Customer Project	Machine Shop Chargeback Rate	Mechanical Design and Logistics Costs¹
A	UCAR², including NCAR	NSF	Yes	No
B	NCAR	Non-NSF³	Yes	Yes
C	^Outside4	NSF	Yes	No
D	UCAR, not including NCAR	Non-NSF	Yes	Yes
E	Outside	Non-NSF	Yes	Yes

¹These costs, including direct costs applied, will be charged only to non-NSF-supported projects.
²"UCAR" refers to actual UCAR groups, not to UCAR member universities.
³Assignment of this priority level assumes that the outside work benefits the NSF-supported program at NCAR, as required by NCAR proposal criteria for non-NSF funding.
⁴E.g., UCAR member or non-UCAR member universities, or government agencies other than NSF.

A collection of specialized mechanical equipment and component fabrication done by the Machine Shop for field program activities is available. Products range from heavy parts for radar pedestals to tapered aircraft inlets and light-weight satellite instruments.

BI-WEEKLY CHARGEBACK STATUS

For more information, contact Jack Fox at 303.497.8781 or via email to jfox@ucar.edu.

DESIGN AND FABRICATION SERVICES

Guidelines for Work to be accepted by DFS

DFS Funding

Work Acceptance Policy

Special Provision for Outside Customers

Table 1