Ion Chromatography Systems

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Contract Opportunity

Ion Chromatography Systems

THIS IS A SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE ONLY. NO FORMAL SOLICITATION IS BEING REQUESTED UNDER THIS NOTICE.

This Sources Sought Notice is for market research purposes to identify interested firms for the potential requirement detailed below. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code is 334516 (Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing) and the size standard is 1,000 employees. The Government will review the information requested in this announcement to determine the type of set-aside (if any) for this requirement, should it come to fruition.

NOTE 1: The Buy American Act (41 U.S.C. 8301-05) is the primary federal procurement law providing a preference for domestic goods and manufactured products. As such, the USGS is seeking information on sources that can supply the described instrument either mined, produced or manufactured in the U.S. in sufficient and reasonably available commercial quantities of satisfactory quality.

NOTE 2: The full specifications and requirements will be provided with any solicitation that may be issued. The Government is not required to issue a solicitation.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), National Water Quality Laboratory (NWQL), Denver, CO has a requirement to purchase five new Ion Chromatography Systems, which shall include installation of the system at the National Water Quality Laboratory (NWQL), all required software, warranty, and training of NWQL staff.

Ion chromatography systems (ICs) are currently used at the National Water Quality Laboratory (NWQL) to measure environmental water samples for concentrations of bromide, fluoride, chloride and sulfate. The NWQL currently has one (1) IC dedicated to bromide analysis and 3 other ICs which analyzes approximately a total of 32,000 tests for FY23. The ion chromatography instruments currently used for these analyses range in age and have started to show signs of decreasing reliability and are or will no longer be covered under a maintenance service contract by the end of CY24.

This is a direct replacement for systems that are currently obsolete. The NWQL requires five (5) individual systems to support the product line, due to the volume of work required per fiscal year. For these reasons, it is imperative that the replacements meet the requirements of the other systems without changes in software or hardware.

The following specifications are required but not limited to:

1. INSTRUMENT:

a.        The workstation shall be an integrated system and shall include a pump, column heater, suppressor, autosampler and injector, guard and analytical IC columns, and conductivity detector.

b.        Have the capability of performing multiple and variable dilutions within a run without further analyst support.

c.        Have the capability to perform isocratic and high-pressure gradient separations.

d.        Have chemical suppression.

e.        Have automated eluent degassing.

f.        Have automated eluent generation.

2. DETECTOR:

a.        Have a detector consisting of a conductivity cell with a measurement range of between 0- 15,000 µS/cm.

b.        Have a dynamic range for the following analytes:

1.        Bromide: 0.02 mg/L to 0.4 mg/L.

2.        Fluoride: 0.01 mg/L to 1 mg/L.

3.        Chloride: 0.05 mg/L to 100 mg/L.

4.        Sulfate: 0.04 mg/L to 100 mg/L.

3. AUTOSAMPLER:

a.        Hold a minimum of 100 samples.

b.        Have ability to access any cup in any rack at any time, which will enable automatic repeated measurement of samples.

c.        Have in-line sample filtration capabilities.

d.        Have the ability to auto-dilute samples at a dilution factor specified by the user.

e.        Have ability to change the dilution factor specified by the user within a sample sequence.

f.        Have a dilution accuracy of a minimum of ± 2%.

4. SENSITIVITY, PRECISION AND, ACCURACY:

a.        Shall be capable of meeting a Method Detection Limit (MDL) for the following analytes:

1.        Bromide of 0.01 mg/L.

2.        Fluoride: of 0.01 mg/L.

3.        Chloride: of 0.05 mg/L.

4.        Sulfate: of 0.02 mg/L.

b.        Reproducibility (n=7) of reagent water spiked at 80% of the upper calibration limit for all anions shall be less than or equal to 10% of the mean of the n determinations at the 95% confidence interval.

c.        Standard reference materials shall be analyzed with an accuracy of ± 5%.

5. WARRANTY:

a.        System shall have a minimum one-year warranty which starts on the date of instrumentation acceptance.

b.        Warranty period shall not start on the date of instrumentation shipping.

c.        Two (2) preventative maintenance visits, one at six (6) months and one at twelve (12) months shall be included in the warranty period for the inspection, functional cleaning, status assessment, replacement of critical wearing parts, testing and functional checks.

d.        Free firmware and software updates when applicable.

e.        Priority response for on-site instrument repairs including but not limited to remote diagnostics and troubleshooting, travel, labor and replacement of parts deemed as hardware failure.

f.        Contractor shall provide all necessary personnel, equipment and materials, except as otherwise specified, for the preventative maintenance, emergency repairs, software support, and remedial service for the ion chromatography instruments.

g.        Contractor shall provide all necessary parts, labor and travel expenses. Preventative maintenance shall be performed at the NWQL in accordance with the procedures and frequencies recommended by the OEM and NWQL methods.

6. SOFTWARE:

a.        Must include IC controlling software.

b.        Must be compatible with Windows 10 and higher operating systems.

c.        Shall have utilities that can be used to build a tab or comma-delimited result files for data transmittal to LIMS.

d.        Software installation and performance verification with government supplied computer shall be included.

e.        Software control shall be established by LAN, serial, or USB connection from controlling computer to instrument.

f.        Vendor shall certify that all software and hardware are free of malicious code.

g.        Vendor shall comply with all USGS and Department of Interior computer security protocols and requirements.

h.        Technical service shall be available for the 8.5-hour (or longer) period from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM Mountain Time, Monday through Friday (U.S. Federal Holidays excepted), and contractor shall respond to queries within four hours.

7. CALIBRATION

a.        Shall be capable of producing a multi-point calibration with linear or quadratic fits.

b.        Instrument shall produce calibrations with correlation coefficients of a minimum of r2 ±0.999.

c.        Shall be capable of automatically calculating correlation coefficients.

d.        Calibration and other parameters can be changed, and results can be recalculated after a run.

e.        Shall provide the ability to modify the run sequence in the software as the instrument is running.

(End of Specifications)

All business concerns who believe they can responsibly provide this type of product must submit the following information to the Contracting Officer:

1. The firm shall specify the products that meets the product specifications listed above along with product specification sheet and product brochure.

2. For equipment/supply requirements, business responses must include: (1) the place of manufacturing (i.e. address if supply/equipment is a domestic end product and include country of manufacture) per NOTE 1 above.

3. The firm shall specify that they are either a small business (8(a), HUBZone, SDVOSB, etc.) Or other than small business under the NAICS Code listed in the announcement.

4. The firm shall provide a point of contact name and e-mail information, and SAM.gov (Unique Entity ID (UEI), and must be registered and active in System for Award Management (SAM).

NOTE 3: All information submitted in response to this announcement is voluntary ¿ 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. Materials submitted to the Government for review will not be returned. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation. This is not a request for quotations. The Government does not intend to award a contract based on responses received under this announcement.

In order to be responsive to this Notice, a firm must provide the appropriate documentation for consideration by April 1, 2024 at 2:30 p.m. (MDT). Responses that do not comply with these procedures will not be considered.

Inquiries will only be accepted by e-mail to Lisa Williams at ldwilliams@usgs.gov

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