SOLICITATION NOTICE
66 -- U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research and Development Center, Vicksburg, MS. Retracts Intent to Sole Source and post a combined synopsis/solicitation.
- Notice Date
- 3/11/2009
- Notice Type
- Combined Synopsis/Solicitation
- NAICS
- 334516
— Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- Department of the Army, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Army Engineer Research & Development Center (ERDC), Waterways Experiment Station (WES), U.S. Army Engineer Research & Development Center (ERDC), Waterways Experiment Station (WES), 3909 HALLS FERRY ROAD , VICKSBURG, MS 39180-6199
- ZIP Code
- 39180-6199
- Solicitation Number
- W912HZ-09-F-0031
- Response Due
- 3/18/2009
- Archive Date
- 5/17/2009
- Point of Contact
- ELIZABETH KELLEY, 601-634-3548<br />
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. High Performance Research FT-IR Spectrometer Package All those responding must do so in writing to each of the requirements that follow with an explanation of how their proposed system meets, exceeds or differs from the specification. The statement MEETS SPECIFICATION without written supporting documentation as a response is unacceptable. The FT-IR spectrometer must be optically flexible and user serviceable. The instrument software must operate under Microsoft XP Professional or Windows Vista for future PC upgrades. The instrument must be capable of performing all of the following specialized, hyphenated sampling techniques: GC-IR, TGA-IR, and FT-Raman Spectroscopy all in a single componentized system by the addition of optional modules that attach to the instrument and utilize the same software. Instruments that cannot perform all of the techniques in a single system will limit our future research projects and are not acceptable. The system must also be field upgradeable to do AM step-scan, PM step-scan, simultaneous multiple modulation step-scan, time-resolved step-scan, step-scan imaging, and dual channel measurements. Considerations and Requirements 1.We currently have an extensive investment in accessories and external infrared detectors that we must be able to continue using on the new instrument. The only way that we can properly use them, is if the infrared beam height and diameter of the new instrument matches that of our current FT-IR. Many of the accessories are no longer manufactured, so specialized adapters are not even available to modify them for use on any other FT-IR design than the one we currently own and operate. The spectrometer must therefore have the exact beam height and shape to allow us to use our current sampling accessories and detectors. 2.We have amassed years of spectral data through the instruments acquisition software. The data files are extremely important to our past and more importantly, our current research projects. We therefore require that the new instrument use the same software that we currently use to open and process these files with. We currently own over $20,000 in commercial Infrared Spectral Libraries that we have purchased over the years that can only be accessed through the software that we currently own and operate on our FT-IR spectrometer. It is therefore a requirement that our new instrument use the same software that we currently use. 3.The spectrometers interferometer that we currently own uses a continuous scan 90-degree Michelson interferometer. The interferometer employs an active digital dynamic alignment system based on laser detection feedback for optimal system performance and maintenance of accurate line shapes. Digital dynamic alignment improves scan to scan repeatability, enhances long and short term stability and ensures that the optical system maintains optimum alignment. The system stability is extremely important to our research in that we scan for extremely long periods to collect data. Without this type of advanced intrascan corrections based on the Helium Neon finges, our data collection will suffer. It is therefore a requirement that our new instrument employ the same level of sophistication that the FT-IR that we currently own does. Passive systems that rely solely on having both interferometer mirrors mounted on a single plate and not correcting for thermal or environmental changes within the interferometer are not acceptable. Interferometers that rely solely on cube corner retroreflectors for tilt compensation are not acceptable owing to their reduced performance due to shear effects. 4.We currently use automatic interferometer alignment, which is required for periodic system optimization and it is completely computer controlled. We therefore require that the new FT-IR spectrometer to operate in the same manner. Under no circumstances shall the only mechanism for adjusting the interferometer be limited to an on-site service call. 5.Our current spectrometer possesses a monolithic, pinned in place optical design such that optical integrity and alignment are maintained throughout the life of the instrument. The spectrometer mirrors do not incorporate nor require any adjustment screws to effect alignment. Our current experiments also require a higher level throughput. It is therefore a requirement that the new FT-IR possess all gold coated, pinned in place optics.The optical design must include a single parabolic mirror between the beamsplitter and the sample chamber, and a single ellipsoidal mirror between the sample chamber and the detector to ensure maximum energy throughput of the system. 6.We will also be performing many high resolution sampling experiments. We therefore require that the system includes an iris controlled aperture that is programmable from the system software. The aperture must include 150 discrete aperture positions to optimize performance for a variety of experimental conditions and system configurations. Systems that use a manual aperture are not precise enough for our needs. We will also be conducting many IR polarized experiments that will require a specialized IR polarizer that is internally mounted in the instrument and software controlled. 7.The system must include a software controlled automated attenuation screen wheel to select varying levels of light attenuation with 4 windows that let 100%, 30%, 10% and 3% of the energy through to the sample compartment. 8.We will be conducting many experiments outside of the main instrument sample compartment. We require that the new system must be able to pass a collimated, modulated infrared beam from the interferometer to exit the spectrometer on the right side, the left side or the front of the optical bench. None of the external beams may traverse through the main sample compartment of the spectrometer. Selection of the external beam must be made under computer control. We also will be doing fiber optic sampling externally and require that a dedicated fiber optic launcher and 10 meters of bundled fiber cable be installed on the instrument outside of the sample compartment. Since fiber optic cables are extremely fragile, we require that the new instrument have a dedicated fiber optics launcher and detector that do not have to be removed from the instrument to perform other types of sampling. An in-sample compartment fiber optics launcher is not acceptable for our research needs. 9.The mid-infrared source shall have electronic temperature control allowing the user to select one of three operational modes. The source shall be warranted against failure for five years. The source must be pinned in place and be completely user replaceable. The visible light source that is included as well, must be software selectable and user replaceable as well without any specialized manual alignment. 10.The HeNe reference laser must be pinned-in-place, pre-aligned and completely user replaceable without the use of an oscilloscope. The laser must be coaxial with the infrared beam to insure accurate infrared peak positions and must be visible in the main sample compartment to aid in the alignment of samples and accessories. 11.The connection of spectrometer to computer must be made using industry standard USB 2.0 connection for the fastest possible data transfer. USB 1 or Ethernet connections that require an IP address are not sufficient and do not meet industry standard. 12.The standard resolution of the spectrometer shall be better than 0.125 cm-1 apodized, 0.09cm-1 unapodized (Triangular or Happ-Genzel) measured full width at half height (FWHH) using a gas sample of CO at 4 torr pressure. The instrument must include all of the hardware (sources, beamsplitters and detectors) and software to cover from the far infrared to visible spectral range (50 to 25,000 cm-1). The instrument must include DTGS, InGaS, and MCT-A detectors. 13.The interferometer mirror control must be capable of providing physical mirror scanning velocities from 0.15 cm/sec to 6.3 cm/sec. The spectrometer must be capable of achieving rapid scanning scans speeds of up to 65 scans/sec at 16 cm-1 resolution with the interferograms must be written directly to disk and not stored in memory.The spectrometer shall be capable of achieving a signal-to-noise ratio of better than 50,000:1 peak-to-peak in a one minute measurement time at 4 cm-1 resolution with triangular apodization using a KBr beamsplitter and TGS detector. A 25% increase in throughput must be seen using the Turbo source energy mode. 14.ASTM Linearity: The spectrometer shall provide less than 0.07% deviation from 0.0%T (100%-0% scaling) for the optically thick peaks in 3 mil thick polystyrene when measured at 4 cm-1 resolution. 15.The instrument must have cast-in storage holders for two additional beamsplitters in addition to the beamsplitter that is installed in the interferometer. These spare beamsplitters must be contained within the sealed and desiccated or purged environment of the spectrometer and must be at thermal equilibrium with the interferometer to allow for rapid beamsplitter interchange and stability.The installed beamsplitter must be automatically recognized by the system upon installation. The beamsplitter must be aligned to better than 95% of the optimal alignment within 10 seconds or less after having been installed in the instrument. The system must be ready to use within 10 seconds after the new beamsplitter has been installed. 16.The included liquid nitrogen cooled MCT detector must have an extremely high detectivity of at least 6.5 E10 cm1/2/W for our experiments that require high sensitivity, the dewar must be manufactured out of stainless steel and guaranteed to be free from artifacts due to icing. Because many of our experiments will take a very long time to perform, the detectors dewar should provide a hold time of up to 18 hours for unattended overnight operation. 17.In addition to our currently owned accessories, we require the new instrument include all of the necessary hardware and software needed to be able to perform the following experiments: "Transmission standard transmission sampling with sample windows made from KBr, BaF and ZnSe windows. "Diffuse reflectance including KBr powder, sampling cups and gold reflectance reference for high sensitivity experiments that we will be performing, SiC reference and sampling discs. We also will be performing environmentally controlled experiments that require a dual environmental control chamber that is capable of performing diffuse reflectance experiments. The chamber must allow for vacuum of 10-5 Torr and pressure up to 1500 psi. The temperature range must go from ambient to 900C. Software must control the temperature ramp and the instrument scans frequency at various temperatures. The entire set up must be complete integrated into a single unit and interface to the instrument control software. "A gemstone quality, Type 2A diamond ATR accessory must be included with a spectral range from 100 cm-1. We will be performing specialized experiments by ATR that require access to much lower energy vibrations. We require a pure diamond ATR not a diamond/ZnSe laminate that will limit our spectral range. "Mid-IR Fiber optics launcher with 10 meters of fiber optic cable. "Purge gas generator that supplies a minimum of 36 SCFH of carbon dioxide and water free purge gas to the entire system. "Near-infrared diffuse reflectance by fiber optics "Polarized variable angle specular reflectance experiments with a range of 30 to 83 degrees from normal. This should include all sample masks and reflective substrates required to perform polarized thin film analysis. 20.Our experiments require that we are able to display the interferogram in real time prior to co-averaging of the sample scans. This will allow us to ensure that we are getting the spectral quality information from the sample prior to launching the collection event. The new instrument should be able to provide a live spectral scan of the sample system prior to the collection event launch. 21.We require a software tool that can independently apply an ATR correction to the spectra collected by ATR. This feature can be controlled by the end-user and not automatically applied. Our experiments will require us to choose when to apply it and when not to. 22.Additional standard software features that we currently use on our FT-IR must included with the new instrument as well. Automatic and manual baseline correction, ability to save interferogram(s) and post process the data, ability to control the source energy between three operational modes, straight-line generate, blank region, interactive spectral subtraction, automatic and manual smoothing, spectral derivative calculations, multiply, add, peak find with threshold and sensitivity adjustment, peak annotation, automatic noise computation, file management for storing and grouping spectra, interactive Fourier Self Deconvolution, palette of icons tools for region select, peak height, peak area, cursor and annotation, Kramer's Kronig dispersion correction, ATR Correction, Kubelka Munk computation, overlaid or stacked spectra displayed with common matched or offset scaling, X-view box for displaying entire spectrum, box and zoom, roll and zoom, spectra scaling for all spectra in a window, multiple spectra displayed in one or multiple windows, bi-directional JCAMP-DX support, XY pair and ASCII data text file format spectral file support (CSV). 23.We will be conducting extensive IR Microscopy experiments that require and very precise aperture to ensure spectral quality is not compromised. We therefore require that the included IR microscope employ the use of dual-remote aperturing. This means that there is an aperture pre-sample and an aperture post-sample in both the reflection and transmission sampling modes and uses the same aperture for both pre- and post- sample aperturing. This is critical to microscopic applications as the aperture is the key to eliminating stray light caused by diffraction of the IR 24.The supplied IR microscope must include infinity corrected optics and the tools required to perform DIC enhanced spectral illumination. This means that other than the objective and condenser, there are no focusing mirrors or optics in the entire system until the IR beam is focused onto the detector. This allows us to get a better visual image of the samples we will be analyzing. DIC will assist us with finding specific features in our samples. We also require that the IR microscope be able to perform Fluorescence illumination by the use of optional fluorescence illumination cubes and filters. We require and IR microscope that can have this capability added at any time later as our sampling needs change. 25.Our research experiments also require that the IR microscope include a slid on ATR accessory that can me easily slid into and out of position for micro-ATR sampling. Since we will be using various materials in our samples, we need to be able to remove the ATR accessory and inspect the crystal surface for contamination. We therefore require that the ATR accessory included with the IR microscope be designed to slide in and out for easy inspection and cleaning without the need for any special alignment each time. 26.We will be performing mapping on our samples as well as micro-ATR mapping. The instrument must include all hardware and software required to perform both techniques unattended. The stage must have a very high precision to perform very small, sub-micron step sizes for the most accurate maps of the sample. Micro-ATR mapping must be controlled automatically so that we can perform large area maps unattended. 27.Our experiments will require that we have the ability to survey the sample image and collect IR data simultaneously in transmission. We will need to be able to move the stage automatically to a sample spot and see the change in the IR spectrum simultaneously in order to pinpoint the exact location that we want to collect data from. We must also have complete visualization of the entire field of view, including the sample spot, when the aperture is set to the appropriate size and rotation via the video display in the software as well as through the eyepieces of the microscope. The view is not obscured by overlaid glass aperture lines or any other visual artifacts. 28.To account for extreme differences in particle sizes of our samples, we require that the system include a 4-place rotatable nosepiece with a 10X, 40X glass objective and a 15X Infinity corrected objective. Each of the IR objectives should have continuous compensation capabilities to allow for adjustment of the focal length of the lenses to adjust the spectral quality when we sample on the supplied IR transparent windows. 29.The IR microscope should also include a diamond windowed compression cell that will allow for compaction of very hard to compress materials that we will be researching. This compression cell will save considerable time and effort in the preparation of our samples. 30.The entire FT-IR Microscopy system should be fully warrantied for 2 years, parts labor and travel. Installation must be performed by factory trained and certified service personnel. 31.The interferometer and mid-infrared source must be covered by a full five year warranty. The source, HeNe laser, power supply, and detectors must all be completely user replaceable without the necessity of a service visit. No optical alignment or alignment tools should be required to replace these components. 32. 2 days of on-site training by an instrument specialist must be included for the complete system. In addition, a 3-day software training course for 2 people must be included at the manufacturers site.
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- Place of Performance
- Address: U.S. Army Engineer Research & Development Center (ERDC), Waterways Experiment Station (WES) 3909 HALLS FERRY ROAD , VICKSBURG MS<br />
- Zip Code: 39180-6199<br />
- Zip Code: 39180-6199<br />
- Record
- SN01767149-W 20090313/090311220333-c26da6a9692ca4444d4c516d605313c0 (fbodaily.com)
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