Servicing and Maintenance of vacuum pumps.

Description

Servicing and Maintenance of Edwards vacuum pumps at Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.

Key facts

Procedure

Direct award

Lots

1

Contact

stfcprocurement@ukri.org

Contract period

6 Nov 2026 → 6 Oct 2028

Value incl. VAT

£312k

Category

services

Awarded suppliers

• Edwards Vacuum LLC · GB-PPON-PYMD-4696-ZXNV · UKJ28, GB

Ground given for limiting competition

The buyer’s own stated reason for awarding without open competition, as published. Their assertion, not a finding.

The manufacturer’s training is only available to Edward’s staff. This means that no other companies are trained on the full range of products and would not be able to maintain the pumps to the correct manufacturer’s standards and they would be unable to provide repairs. The required specialist tooling including software and hardware support for all products and procedures needed to do technical work is completely owned and licensed by Edwards. This is not sold to the public, thus precluding any other company from undertaking this level of repair. Edwards’ tooling, software and training are Edwards own intellectual property – unavailable to any other company.