Mass Spectrometer

This notice announces the intent by the U.S. Army Medical Research Acquisition Activity (USAMRAA) in support of the Defense Health Agency (DHA), Armed Forces Medical Examiner System (AFMES), located at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. This notice is for the procurement of two of their Sciex QTrap 4500 Mass Spectrometer/Shimadzu Nexera 40CX3 Series Ultra High-Performance Liquid Chromatograph Systems. The Sole Source vendor is AB Sciex.

The Sciex QTrap 4500 mass spectrometer/Shimadzu Nexera 40CX3 Series ultra-high performance liquid chromatograph system will be used for research, method development, and production work in forensic drug testing. The LC system must be capable of providing pulse-free solvent delivery. The system must contain an oven-controlled column compartment which allows for analytical separation to occur. The MS system must be capable of low-level detection, fast analysis time, and data processing. The technology requires high level technical expertise to provide on-site system familiarization and support to AFMES staff.

Minimum Essential Characterisctics (MEC):

Shimadzu Nexera 40CX3 Series High Performance Liquid Chromatograph System:

1. Solvent delivery unit capable of handling pressures up to 18000 PSI


2. Degassing unit


3. Temperature controlled column compartment


4. Temperature controlled autosampler with a flow through needle (in flow path) and ≥ 160 vial capacity. The vial positions must be able to accommodate 1.5 mL vial sizes.


5. Solvent selection valve for LC pump

Sciex QTrap 4500 Mass Spectrometer

1. Atmospheric pressure ionization (API) LC interface


2. Ion source that can be operated in both ESI and APCI modes. Include probes and hardware for both ionizations modes.


3. Turbo V source housing with TurboIonSpray probe and APCI probe


4. High precision syringe pump and integrated switching (divert) valve


5. Mass range of 5-2000 Da in triple quadrupole mode and 50-2000 Da in linear ion trap (LIT) mode. All lens and analyzer voltages must be digitally controlled.


6. Ion guide for focusing ions


7. Curved collision cell


8. Capable of both triple quadrupole and linear ion trap (LIT) scanning modes. Operate in product ion scan, precursor ion scan, neutral loss or gain scan, multiple reaction monitoring (MRM), scheduled MRM, enhanced MS scan, enhanced product ion scan, enhanced resolutions scan, MS3 scan, MRM3 scan, and TripleTrap scan.

Data System and Instrument Maintenance

1. Computer and monitor that are Windows 10 and TPM 2.0 compliant


2. Microsoft Office 2016 or current version.


3. Analyst 1.7 (or current version) software and license for instrument control and data acquisition


4. Sciex OS-MQ 2.1 (or better) software and license for data processing


5. Stand-alone applications where all software components are installed on one computer which controls the instrument and the instrument software.


6. 1 year warranty with 2 preventative maintenance visits in first year

The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) for this requirement is 334516 and PSC 6640.

This Special Notice of Intent is not a request for competitive quotes. Information received in response to this notice will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether a competitive procurement is in the best interest of the Government.

All questions and responses concerning this notice shall be emailed to Brian Miller at brian.d.miller1.civ@health.mil.

Interested concerns must identify their capability in writing to the above email address listed above no later than date and time listed in this Notice of Intent to Sole Source.