Preventive maintenance for two Zeiss Merlin SEM's and one Gatan 3View sectioning device

U.S. FDA SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE (SSN)

Preventive maintenance and repair service  for two Zeiss Merlin SEM’s and Gatan 3View serial block face sectioning device

SSN #:                     75F40123R115600

Posted Date:             December 15, 2022

Response Date:         January 3, 2023, 2:00 pm CDT

Classification:           J066 - Maint/Repair/Rebuild of Equipment- Instruments and Laboratory Equipment

NAICS Code:             811210 - Electronic and Precision Equipment Repair and Maintenance, Small Business Size Standard $30 Million

MARKET RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY - NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL OR SOLICITATION

This is a Sources Sought notice to determine the availability of SAM.gov-registered small businesses capable of supplying the preventive maintenance and repair services for the instrument systems described herein.  This notice is for planning purposes only, and does not constitute an Invitation for Bids, Request for Proposal, Request for Quotation, or an indication the Government intends to award a contract, nor does the Government intend to pay for any information submitted as a result of this notice.  Your response to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a small business set-aside is possible.

The appropriate NAICS code for the acquisition is 811210 - Electronic and Precision Equipment Repair and Maintenance, Small Business Size Standard – $30 million.

Requirement

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Office of Acquisitions and Grants Services (OAGS) presents this Sources Sought Notice (SSN) on behalf of the National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR) to identify existing small businesses capable of providing the following preventive maintenance and/or repair services:

• Preventive maintenance and repair service for Zeiss Merlin Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Serial Number: MRL 40-6054;
• Preventive maintenance and repair service for Zeiss Merlin Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Serial Number: MRL 40-4265;
• Preventive maintenance and repair service for Gatan 3View serial block face sectioning device, Serial Number: 3V033M SBFSEM.  (Note:  This instrument is paired with the Zeiss scope Serial Number:  MRL 40-4265);

The Government requires a base year and two (2) option years of these services to commence upon expiration of an existing agreement on 9/11/2023.

If your firm is considered a small business source under North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) 811210–Electronic and Precision Equipment Repair and Maintenance, Small Business Size Standard of $30 Million, and believe that your firm is capable of providing these services, please submit a capability statement by e-mail to timothy.walbert@fda.hhs.gov. by the date and time specified above, providing all information as required below.

Background

A significant role of NCTR under the FDA’s mission is to conduct scientific research focused on improving current scientific knowledge and understanding of toxicological and pharmacological impacts and effects of agency-regulated materials on human health. To embrace this role, NCTR maintains an electron microscope (EM) core facility available FDA-wide to researchers. This EM core includes two scanning electron microscopes (SEM’s), one with a 3View serial block face sectioning device. The SEM’s are two (2) Zeiss Merlin Field Emission Gun Scanning Electron Microscopes (FEG SEM’s). One of these Zeiss Merlins (Serial Number: MRL 40-6054), is a shared instrument resource for NCTR and the Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA). This instrument is heavily used by both centers to conduct research relevant to the mission of each center. The second Zeiss Merlin (Serial Number: MRL 40-4265) is paired with a Gatan 3View serial block face sectioning device (Serial Number: 3V033M SBFSEM) to form what is known as a Serial Block Face Scanning Electron Microscopy (SBFSEM). The Gatan 3View device is used to serially section through specially prepared and embedded biological research tissues from experimental animals in order to reconstruct these tissues digitally in 3D. These 3D reconstructions are used to elucidate structural impacts of treatment with FDA regulated materials on biological tissues. In addition, the SBFSEM system is employed to determine the distribution of nanotechnology within tissue and to study the impact of a range of drug treatments on organs and tissues through 3D tissue morphology.

Minimum Technical Requirements are as follows for a base period and two (2) option years of preventive maintenance and repair service for Zeiss Merlin Field Emission Gun Scanning Electron Microscope, Serial Number: MRL 40-6054, Zeiss Merlin Field Emission Gun Scanning Electron Microscope, Serial Number: MRL 40-4265, and Gatan 3View serial block face sectioning device, Serial Number:  3V033M SBFSEM:

*Shall include one (1) planned on-site preventive maintenance visit for each covered instrument for routine preventive maintenance;

*Shall include one Field Emission Gun (FEG) tip change-out for each Merlin SEM per contract year;

*Telephone response time of 4 hours from receipt of FDA service request (repairs only);

*On-site response time of 3 business days from receipt of FDA service request (repairs only);

*Shall include unlimited on-site repair services by factory-trained and certified engineers within 3-5 days of reported problem;

*Access by the FDA Technical Representative (TR) and system operator personnel to the manufacturer’s call center for technical assistance, which is staffed by senior engineers to provide a high level of expertise for troubleshooting a particular instrument or piece of lab equipment;

*Priority access to technical support (e-mail and telephone) Mondays - Fridays (excluding Federal Holidays) between the hours of 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM Eastern (Prevailing) Time;

*All maintenance and repair service activities shall be performed by factory-trained and certified technicians and/or engineers, following Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) specifications, manuals, and service bulletins, using OEM replacement parts, components, subassemblies, etc.;

*Software upgrades, firmware, and hardware updates as required by the OEM;

*All preventive maintenance and repair service pricing shall be inclusive of labor, travel, replacement parts, components, subassemblies, etc.;

*10% discount on consumables and upgrades;

Service Records and Reports

*The Contractor shall, commensurate with the completion of each preventive maintenance or repair service visit (inclusive of warranty service), provide the end-user of the equipment with a copy of a field service report/ticket identifying the equipment name, manufacturer, model number, and serial number of the equipment being serviced, a detailed description of the work performed, the test instruments or other equipment used to perform the service, the name(s) and contact information of the technician who performed the service, and for information purposes, the on-site hours expended, and parts/components replaced.  In addition, the Contractor shall provide a written report to the FDA Technical Point of Contact (TPOC) and Contract Specialist, summarizing all maintenance activities (including warranty work) each time service is performed.

Preventive maintenance and/or repair service shall not be scheduled during Federal Holidays or Federal Closures as determined by Executive Orders or opm.gov. Federal Holidays are as follows:

New Year’s Day

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday

Washington’s Birthday

Memorial Day

Juneteenth Day

Independence Day

Labor Day

Columbus Day

Veterans Day

Thanksgiving Day

Christmas Day

Contract Type:  Commercial Item-Firm Fixed Price

Period(s) of Performance (Estimated):

Base Period:                9/12/2023 through 9/11/2024

Option Year 1:             9/12/2024 through 9/11/2025

Option Year 2:             9/12/2025 through 9/11/2026

Delivery Address:

U.S. Food and Drug Administration

National Center for Toxicological Research

3900 NCTR Road, Bldg. 26

Jefferson, AR  72079-9501

Responses to this Sources Sought notice shall unequivocally demonstrate the respondent is currently engaged in providing the onsite preventive maintenance and repair services as described herein and meeting all technical requirements set forth above.  Although the target audience for this Notice are small businesses or small businesses capable of providing these stocks from another small business, all interested parties may respond. At a minimum, responses in the form of a Capability Statement shall include the following:

1. Business name and bio, SAM Unique Entity Identifier (UEI), business address, business website, business size status (i.e., SB, VOSB, SDVOSB, HUBZone SB, SDB, WOSB, LB), point of contact name, mailing address (if different from business address), phone number and email address;
2. Descriptive literature, brochures, marketing material, etc. detailing the preventive maintenance and repair services which the responding firm is regularly engaged in providing for identical or similar Zeiss Merlin SEM’s and Gatan 3View serial block face sectioning devices. Capability statements must provide sufficient information that unequivocally demonstrates that the technical requirements and delivery time identified above can be met;
3. Provide recent (within the last three (3) years) and relevant past performance information for the manufacture and/or sale in which the offeror has provided same or substantially similar preventive maintenance and repair services. For each past performance reference include the date of sale, description, dollar value, client name, client address, client point of contact name, client point of contact mailing address (if different from that provided for client), client point of contact phone number, client point of contact email address, and name of the manufacturer (to include SAM Unique Entity Identifier (UEI) and size status) if not the respondent;
4. If applicable, standard commercial warranty and payment terms;
5. If applicable, identification of the firm's GSA Schedule contract(s) by Schedule number and SIN’s that are applicable to this potential requirement are also requested;
6. If a large business, provide documentation of any subcontracting opportunities which exist for small business concerns;
7. Though this is not a request for quote, informational pricing is encouraged;
8. The Government is not responsible for locating or securing any information, not identified in the response;
9. Respondent shall advise if the services required is currently available on a “Best in Class” or other Government-wide or HHS-wide contract.
10. Respondent shall provide country (or countries) of origin for the products and/or services offered in response to this solicitation, and shall include any other applicable information to enable review and analysis pursuant to the requirements under the Buy American Act and requirements relating to Executive Order 14005 - Ensuring the Future is Made in All of America by All of America’s Workers, in the event that a nonavailability waiver request (submitted through the Made in America Office (MIAO)  Digital Waiver Portal) is required.

Interested parties shall respond with Capability Statements as described above by e-mail only, before 2:00 pm (Central Daylight Time - Local Prevailing Time in Jefferson, Arkansas) on January 3, 2023, to Tim Walbert, Contract Specialist, at the following address:  timothy.walbert@fda.hhs.gov.

Notice of Intent

Responses to this Sources Sought announcement will assist the Government in determining whether or not any future requirement similar to this one should be set aside for small business, made available to full and open competition or procure through sole-source acquisition procedures.  

Disclaimer and Important Notes

This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre‐solicitation synopsis and/or combined synopsis-solicitation may be published on SAM/Federal Contract Opportunities (formerly FBO) at https://sam.gov/content/opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation.

Confidentiality and Proprietary Information

No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use any non‐proprietary technical information in any resultant solicitation(s).