SOURCES SOUGHT
66 -- Robotic Liquid Handling Workstation
- Notice Date
- 8/4/2023 1:44:24 PM
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- Contracting Office
- NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH NIAID BETHESDA MD 20892 USA
- ZIP Code
- 20892
- Solicitation Number
- SS-NIAID-23-2177139
- Response Due
- 8/15/2023 12:00:00 PM
- Archive Date
- 08/30/2023
- Point of Contact
- Hershea Vance, Phone: 3017616404, Tamara McDermott, Phone: 4063757487
- E-Mail Address
-
hershea.vance@nih.gov, tamara.mcdermott@nih.gov
(hershea.vance@nih.gov, tamara.mcdermott@nih.gov)
- Description
- Introduction This is a Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding the availability and capability of all qualified sources to perform a potential requirement. � Project Summary The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Vaccine Immunology Program (VIP) of the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) is seeking a Robotic Liquid Handling Workstation to automate testing for larger planned clinical trials. Specifically, NIAID, VIP is seeking a Robotic Liquid Handling Workstation that can perform the following applications: Instrument The main Instrument covers shall be easily removed and replaced by service personnel without tools. The instrument shall have a recessed on-off switch on the front. The instrument shall come with low level interior lighting which does not affect the assay. The lighting color shall be software controllable. The instrument shall have UV lighting for sterilization. The instrument shall support single channel or multi-channel (96 and 384) pipetting. The instrument shall support multiple internal pipetting and labware manipulating arms. The instrument deck shall be able to hold up to five SBS-standard MTP positions deep and accept stacked plates up to 8 plates high in one position as well as stacked tip racks up to 4 in one position. The instrument shall provide fully pipettable deck space for 60 SBS positions or 72 tracks of tube carriers with up to 32 tubes in one carrier for a total 960 tubes. The user shall be able to load up to 1,920 tips in one motion after removing the tip rack wrapping. The instrument shall support labware heating, cooling, heated shaking, and incubation. The instrument shall be able to rotate, tilt, shake, and rock labware at controlled and varying angles and rates. The instrument shall be able to support vacuum extraction with a deck- mountable device. The Instrument shall incorporate magnetic linear absolute encoders in the x-y directions for speed, positional accuracy, and repeatability. The Instrument shall incorporate optical rotary relative encoders in the z direction for positional accuracy and repeatability. The Instrument shall be IVD compliant. A Design History File shall be made available along with Design Test Plans and results. Production and assembly shall follow CMP and the manufacturer of record shall be ISO certified. All aspects of procurement, manufacturing, and testing shall be auditable. Individual Pipetting Channels The system shall be capable of pipetting with up to 8 channels on a single arm. Each pipetting channel shall be independently adjustable in y axis and z axis (height). The system shall utilize air-displacement pipetting technology to eliminate contamination or dilution of samples/reagent by system liquids. Each pipetting channel shall have independently adjustable spacing between all neighboring pipetting channels. Each pipetting channel shall have tip positioning accuracy of �0.1mm in X, Y and Z axes. Each pipetting channel shall be able to aspirate and dispense into plates with well densities up to 1536 wells without checking or realigning the tip. Each channel shall be capable of pipetting a volume of 0.5uL to 1000uL without changing hardware. Each pipetting channel shall be able to sense levels in polar and non-polar liquids by using either capacitance, pressure, or a combination of capacitance and pressure. The minimum distance between channels shall be 9mm. The maximum distance achievable between any two channels shall be 36mm. Each channel shall be able to independently pipette fluids from different liquid classes. Each channel shall be able to detect the size of tip attached and confirm via the software if the correct tip has been attached for the pipetting conditions selected. Each channel shall have its own pressure monitor for real-time measuring of aspiration and dispense performance to ensure sample delivery is within defined parameters. The software shall be able to interpret the data from this monitor to detect and react to clogs, foams, and insufficient sample. The data shall be stored for Chain of Custody compliance. The software shall be able to react to the pressure data to allow re-aspiration before alerting the user (error avoidance). The software shall allow the run to abort and skip over a sample if the pressure data indicates a discrepancy. Each channel shall feature a mechanism for real-time monitoring and adjustments for droplet formation (i.e., high vapor pressure liquids) to eliminate droplet formation in tips while carrying across deck. The pipetting channels shall accept needles and disposable tips without requiring hardware changes to the channel. The pipetting channels shall be able to switch from needles to disposable tips and back to needles on-the-fly without user intervention. The pipetting channels shall be able to accept 10uL, 50uL, 300uL, 1000uL and 5000uL tips. The pipetting channels shall be able to accept 10uL, 300uL, 1000uL needles. The pipetting channels shall eject tips with minimum force so as not to create any aerosol contaminants. The pipetting channels shall be able to pick-up stacked tips without having to move the tips to a dedicated pick-up position. The pipetting channels shall be able to detect if labware is present or not. The pipetting channels shall be capable of both capacitance and pressure liquid level detection. Multi-Probe Pipetting The 384 probe pipetting head shall be capable of pipetting up to a 300ul volume per channel (50ul max using 384 tip (50ul) and 300ul max using 96 tips (300ul). The 96 probe pipetting head shall be capable of pipetting up to 1000ul volume per channel (using 1000ul tips). The 96 probe pipetting head shall be capable of accessing a single disposable tip, row of tips or column of tips. The 96 probe pipetting head shall feature capacitance-based Liquid Level Detection on at least two independent channels. Labware Manipulation The pipetting channels shall be able to pick up paddles for transport of plates, tip racks, and tubes around the deck. The pipetting channels shall be able to pick up a lid tool to lift lids and other flat surface labware and move them around the deck. The pipetting channels shall be able to pick up a column holder and move up to 8 columns around the deck for vacuum and/or gravity extraction. An articulating gripper shall be available to grab plates and tips racks independently of the pipetting channels and multi-probe heads. The track gripper shall be able to reach 77mm outside the back of the workstation (laterally in Y-axis). The track gripper shall be able to reach 25 outside both sides to access 3rd party devices on the side of the Instrument. The gripper shall be able to rotate tips up to 360 degrees. The gripper shall be able to hold a plate simultaneously while any of the pipetting channels or multi-probe heads pipette. A gripper shall be able to transport plates from anywhere on the deck to another pipettor of equal size positioned on the back of the instrument. A gripper shall be able to transport plates from anywhere on the deck to anywhere below the below within 10 seconds. Bulk Labware and Consumables Loading The Instrument shall have bulk labware and consumables loading options. The bulk loading shall be front accessible by the user. The bulk loading access shall be controllable by the software to only allowed controlled user access. The bulk loading shall be able to inventory all loaded labware and consumables by barcodes on the frames holding the labware or consumables. The bulk loading shall be able to hold greater than 300 tip frames or >400 microtiter plates. The bulk loading shall accept labware and consumables in easy-to-handle stacks which can be pre-stocked off-line by the user. The bulk loading stacks be located under the deck and locatable at different deck positions. The bulk loading shall be protected from the user and the environment by doors. The bulk loading and doors shall be equipped with interlocks.to lock out use access and communicate to the software when the doors have been opened. Waste The Instrument shall provide bulk waste for solids and liquids. The liquid waste container shall have a fill sensor which alerts software when it approaches full. The solid waste shall be accessible from the front and easily remove. It shall come with disposable liners. The solid waste shall be designed to minimize any generation of cross contaminating aerosols. The Instrument shall have doors which protect the user from the liquid and solid waste collection containers. The doors shall have interlocks to lock out the user and communicate to the software when the doors have been opened. Software The software shall provide built-in variable creation and control. The software shall display the current value of all variables. The software shall provide built-in commands which keep track of which tips have been used from which deck positions. The software shall require the user to only identify the labware and well by name for aspirating/dispensing and pipetting location. Pipette locations shall be relative to the labware, enabling the user to reposition labware without having to re- instruct the pipetting target location. The software shall not require position teaching of standard carriers and labware. The software shall contain built-in carrier and labware library files defining dimensions and operability. It shall require teaching of only specially requested custom carriers and 3rd party devices. The software shall be CFR 21 Part 11 compliant. The software shall provide interactive access to pipetting conditions for each channel organized in liquid classes. The software shall allow liquid classes to be defined for groups of pipetting channels or individual channels. The software shall allow for liquid classes to be defined for different volumes or pressure monitoring conditions. The software shall be able to sense if the gripper has gripped or not and provide an alert to the user or mechanism for error recovery. The software shall allow for adjustment of grip strength of the gripper. The software shall include dynamic scheduling of instrument resources for optimal assay processing. These resources include the pipetting arm and channels, labware manipulation grippers, heating/cooling devices, shaking devices, vacuum separation devices, and third-party devices which are compatible with this functionality. The software shall include build-it collision avoidance of the pipetting arm, channels, and labware transportation grippers. The software shall perform automatic handling or errors and allow for customization of error handling routines. The software shall allow for complete customization of user roles and levels of software access. The software shall include the functionality to alert the user to issues via email. The software shall be able to simulate the assay run via 3D visualization. The software shall be able to send and receive worklists to a LIMS. Front Labware Autoloading The instrument shall be capable of automatically loading carriers containing labware, consumables and reagents. The instrument shall read barcodes as the carriers are being loaded and alert the operator to an error before the carrier is completely loaded. The instrument shall read barcode symbologies including: ISBT Standard, Code 128 (subset B & C), Code 39, Codeabar, Code 2 of 5 Interleaved, UPC A/E and JAN/EAN 8 The instrument shall be capable of reading 1D and 2D barcodes (i.e., Datamatrix) In autoload-mode, the instrument shall be able to read the barcode of carriers, plates, tip racks and tubes. The instrument shall come with a carrier staging shelf where carriers can be inserted or staged prior to autoloading. Third Party Device Support The instrument shall allow for the integration of third-party devices. The instrument shall support communication to devices through a software driver over Ethernet or USB. Each tip shall be visually inspected to confirm straightness, orifice concentricity, and absence of flash. Disposable tips shall be available in clear or conductive materials. Tips shall be molded in an RNA/DNAse-free clean room. Tips shall be traceable down to the mold cavity used. A production and delivery capacity of 76,800 x 384-well tips per month shall be achievable by the vendor. Service Agreement � 1 Year Priority dispatch for contract customers. A target response time of 24 hours for a down instrument. A guaranteed response time of 48 hours for a down instrument. A guaranteed call back time of 4 hours. Parts, travel, and labor costs. 2 Preventative Maintenance service calls per year with Verification Services. Anticipated Period of Performance It is anticipated that an award will be made on or about September 15, 2023. Delivery of equipment will be required as soon as possible. Capability Statement/Information Sought If your organization has the potential capacity to provide a Robotic Liquid Handling Workstation which meets the minimum salient characteristics listed above, please provide the following information: Organization name, address, point of contact, email address, website address, telephone number, UEI number Type of business (e.g., 8(a), HUBZone, Other than Small, etc.) pursuant to the applicable NAICS code Identification of any Best-in-Class contract vehicles including Government Wide Acquisition Contracts (GWAC) (e.g., GSA schedule, NITAAC) they may possess or are aware of that would support this possible requirement. If your organization does not provide the products/services under a GWAC, please identify availability as OPEN MARKET ONLY. Tailored capability statement addressing the capability of the instrument to meet NIAID�s minimum salient characteristics. Capability document shall be no more than six pages. Place of manufacture for the workstation and if applicable, any accessories/components. Evidence that the organization is an authorized reseller or manufacturer of the instrument. Only Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) products are acceptable. � Submission Instructions Interested businesses who consider themselves qualified to provide the above listed Robotic Liquid Handling Workstation are invited to submit a response to this Sources Sought Notice by August 15, 2023, at 3:00 PM EST. All responses under this Sources Sought Notice shall be emailed to Hershea Vance at hershea.vance@nih.gov.� Disclamer 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 solicitation may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. �However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. Confidentiality 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).
- Web Link
-
SAM.gov Permalink
(https://sam.gov/opp/0c62bdc7a5844e789deb423b3b168f35/view)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Gaithersburg, MD 20878, USA
- Zip Code: 20878
- Country: USA
- Zip Code: 20878
- Record
- SN06778307-F 20230806/230804230058 (samdaily.us)
- Source
-
SAM.gov Link to This Notice
(may not be valid after Archive Date)
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