This Notice is for planning purposes only and is not a Request for Proposal or Request for Quotation or an obligation on the part of the NIST for conducting a follow-on acquisition. NIST does not intend to award a contract on the basis of this Notice, or otherwise pay for the information requested. No entitlement or payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by NIST will arise as a result of submission of responses to this Notice and NIST's use of such information. NIST recognizes that proprietary components, interfaces and equipment, and clearly mark restricted or proprietary components, interfaces and equipment, and clearly mark restricted or proprietary data and present it as an addendum to the non-restricted/non-proprietary information. In the absence of such identification, NIST will assume to have unlimited rights to all technical data provided in the response.
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The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) seeks information on commercial vendors that are capable of providing a service agreement for preventive maintenance and emergency service for four Thermo Fischer Scientific (FEI) Electron Microscopes, 2 Helios NanoLab 660 Dual Beam microscopes, a Titan 80-300 kV Analytical Transmission Electron Microscope (ATEM), and a Titan 80-300 kV Environmental Transmission Electron Microscope (ETEM) with an image corrector. The microscopes are located at NIST in Gaithersburg, MD.
BACKGROUND
The CNST Nanofab is a multi-user facility that provides state-of-the-art equipment and expert training to users with all levels of experience. The CNST NanoFab has successfully supported advanced research projects in polymers, biology, nanoelectromechanical systems, ceramics, radiation physics, atomic physics, optics, and more. It also provides access to a wide variety of measurement and characterization tools, technologies, and expertise to NIST and its partners.
The service contract shall be a 5 year contract, a base year plus 4 option years, that will provide routine preventive maintenance (PM), emergency services, repair, and calibration for the electron microscopes. These systems are used as shared resources that are accessible to researchers from industry, academia, NIST and other government agencies. The service contract is required to keep these systems operational, with minimal interruption in service so they are available for use 24 hours per day and 7 days a week.
The instruments to be covered by the service contract are listed below.
Helios NanoLab 660 dual beam microscopes. Two (2) commercial FIB SEM microscopes were purchased as Helios NanoLab 650s and upgraded to 660s. They consist of a focused ion beam scanning electron microscope equipped with a high resolution FEG Magellan electron column and a Tomahawk ion column.
CNST’s Titan™ 80-300 kV transmission electron microscopes.
The Contractor shall provide a service agreement for the preventive maintenance and emergency service for the electron microscopes listed above and the associated components to ensure uninterrupted performance within manufacturers’ specifications on a scheduled and as-needed basis. The above electron microscopes are complex instruments that require routine maintenance and calibration to continuously meet the manufacturer’s specifications. In addition, these instruments require emergency service to repair faults, failures, and sudden degradation in the performance envelope of the instrument. The Contractor shall guarantee the full system performance of these instruments, including third-party accessories that were purchased through FEI.
Service and maintenance shall include unlimited emergency visits during regular business hours in addition to scheduled preventive maintenance visits for one year, unless stipulated otherwise. Covered expenses shall include all parts, labor, travel, and per diem. The Contractor shall repair/replace all parts (i.e., hardware, software, accessory components/systems) required for the operation of the systems listed below:
The Contractor shall provide all support for project oversight, equipment, administration and technical execution of this contract. The Contractor is responsible for maintaining accurate records of project activities.
The Contractor shall perform the following tasks for the electron microscopes:
Preventive Maintenance
System Enhancements
Service Calls
Service Conditions
Telephone Support
The Contractor shall submit a service ticket prior to departure from NIST on any given service call for maintenance or repairs with all pertinent information about the service call
The Contractor shall provide Thermo Fisher Scientific certified engineers or technicians during the performance of this requirement. Contractor personnel shall have at least two (2) years of experience on one or more of the electron microscopes in this requirement. Contractor personnel must be US citizens to access the NIST, Gaithersburg, MD.
The Contractor shall abide by the Commerce Acquisition Regulation (CAR) clause 1352.237-75 Key Personnel. The key personnel necessary for the successful completion of the SOW are at least two (2) service engineers/technicians Gaithersburg, Maryland. The service engineers/technicians are necessary for effective and efficient maintenance and timely repair of the electron microscopes.
NIST is seeking responses from all responsible sources, including large, foreign, and small businesses. Small businesses are defined under the associated NAICS code for this effort, 811219, as those domestic sources having 500 employees or less. Please include your company’s size classification and socio-economic status in any response to this notice.
Companies that can provide a preventative maintenance service contract for the Thermo Fisher microscopes are requested to email a detailed report describing their abilities to [email protected] no later than the response date for this sources sought notice. The report should include achievable specifications and any other information relevant to your product or capabilities. Also, the following information is requested to be provided as part of the response to this sources sought notice: 1. Name of the company that manufactures the system components for which specifications are provided. 2. Name of company(s) that are authorized to sell the system components, their addresses, and a point of contact for the company (name, phone number, fax number and email address). 3. Indication of number of days, after receipt of order that is typical for delivery of such systems. 4. Indication of whether each instrument for which specifications are sent to [email protected] are currently on one or more GSA Federal Supply Schedule contracts and, if so, the GSA FSS contract number(s). 5. Any other relevant information that is not listed above which the Government should consider in developing its minimum specifications and finalizing its market research.