USAFA: Upgrade to Waters/TA Instruments Discovery Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA) 5500

SOURCES SOUGHT: THIS IS NOT A NOTICE OF REQUEST FOR QUOTATION BUT INFORMATION AND PLANNING PURPOSES ONLY! This notice does not constitute a commitment by the Government. All information submitted in response to this announcement is voluntary and the Government will not pay for information requested nor will it compensate any respondent for any cost incurred in developing information provided to the Government.

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) Code proposed is 334516. The size standard is 1000 employees. This requirement is to provide a mass spectrometer upgrade to a Waters/TA Instruments Discovery Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA) 5500 for the United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) Dean of Faculty Chemistry Department (DFCH). The mass spectrometer must possess the following salient characteristics:

- The mass spectrometer must be a benchtop quadrupole designed and optimized for evolved gas analysis.
- It must be fully compatible with all TA Instrument Thermogravimetric Analyzers, including the Discovery TGAs, QSeries TGAs, and the TGA-HP products. The mass spectrometer must specifically be optimized to work seamlessly and in concert with the Discovery TGA 5000.
- The mass spectrometer must, at minimum, be able to meet the following technical specifications:
     o Mass range of 1-300 amu
     o Mass resolution of ≥0.5 amu
     o Sensitivity of 50 amu/sec
     o Peak Jump Mode >64 channels/sec
     o Transfer line temperature of 200°C
     o A flexible transfer line with a length of 2.0 meters
     o Capillary size I.D. = 0.22mm
- It must include a cross-beam ion source, a single mass filter, and a dual detector system.
- The dual detector system must include a Faraday detector and a Secondary Electron Multiplier detection system, and the customer must be able to change between these two detectors.
- The mass spectrometer must contain dual filaments that are changeable by the customer.
- The capillary must be quartz and be changeable by the customer.
- Data collection from the mass spectrometer must be able to be controlled from the TA Instruments' TGA instrumentation.
- The mass spectrometer must be able to be programmed to start and stop at any time during the TGA run.
- Instrument setup, control, and experimental parameters, along with mass spectral data analysis, must be achieved through a recipe-driven software interface.
- The mass spectrometer data must be able to be directly imported into TA Instruments' data analysis software and plotted on the same graph as the TGA data. This mass
spectrometer data must be compatible with TA Instruments' TRIOS and Universal Analysis programs. - The mass spectrometer should be customer friendly and allow for basic maintenance by the customer.
- It must come with a kit, components, system, and/or appropriate fittings that will be installed to properly interface the mass spectrometer with the Waters/TA Instruments TGA 5500
- It must come with installation services for both the mass spectrometer and its interface kit with the Waters/TA Instruments TGA 5500. This installation must ensure that the mass spectrometer and the Discovery TGA 5500 instruments function together properly as a whole.

Include in your capabilities package your Unique Entity Identification (UEI), CAGE Code, and System for Award Management expiration date.

The contract type will be a firm-fixed price contract.

Delivery is FOB: Destination to USAF Academy, CO 80840.

Market research is being conducted to determine interest, capability, and socio-economic category of potential sources for the requirement. The government requests interested parties submit a brief description of their company's business size (i.e. annual revenues and employee size), business status (i.e., 8(a), Historically Underutilized Business Zone, service-disabled veteran-owned small business, HUBZone small business, woman-owned small business, veteran-owned small business, or small business) anticipated teaming arrangements, and a description of similar products and services offered to the Government and to commercial customers.

All interested firms shall submit a capabilities package that explicitly demonstrates company capabilities-indicating examples of commercial sales-and product specifications related to this effort. Also indicate if you are the manufacturer, or provide the name and size of the manufacturer of the product(s) you will be supplying. Respondents are further requested to indicate their status as a Foreign-owned/foreign-controlled firm and any contemplated us of foreign national employees on this effort.

NOTE: RESPONSES TO THIS SOURCES SOUGHT SHALL STATE IF THEY ARE A SUPPLIER OR MANUFACTURER!

Contractor is required to provide all management and labor required for the installation of the product as referenced above. If subcontracts are to be used, provide anticipated percentage of effort to be subcontracted and whether small or large businesses will be used. The capabilities package should be brief and concise, yet clearly demonstrate an ability to meet the stated requirements. Teaming and/or subcontracting arrangements should be clearly delineated and previous experience in teaming must be provided. The response must not exceed 5 pages.

Please note: All contractors doing business with the Federal Government must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) database. The website for registration is www.sam.gov.

Email your responses to John Perry, Contract Specialist, at john.perry.33@us.af.mil AND Kenneth Helgeson, Contracting Officer, at kenneth.helgeson.3@us.af.mil. Telephone responses will not be accepted.

RESPONSES ARE DUE NO LATER THAN: 23 July 2024

Future information about this acquisition, including issuance of a quotation and/or applicable amendments, will be issued through www.sam.gov. Interested parties are responsible for ensuring they have the most up-to-date information regarding this acquisition.