U.S. Department of State, Office of Acquisition, P.O. Box 9115, Rosslyn Station, Arlington, VA 22219-0244

70 -- PHOTODIGITAL PRINTERS SOL S-OPRAQ-96-R-0546 DUE 030496 POC J.L. Welch, (703)875-6746 The Department of State intends to award a sole-source contract to Toppan Printing Co., Ltd. for Model MP-300 passport printers, associated printer and document consumables, and printer maintenance for use in its fifteen passport agencies in the United States with options for printers at 220 embassies and consulates overseas, based upon the following: The Department has identified a passport printing technology for producing in one step a data page containing a digital version of the passport photograph and associated text data directly into the United States passport book. The technology eliminates the need for any subsequent lamination, die-cutting, or further assembly. The Toppan printer is the only known printer that meets the stringent security and operating requirements of the Department of State for its domestic and overseas passport issuance operations, as described in the specifications listed below, all of which have to be met. a) Must permit the insertion of a blank passport book directly into the printer and must output a completely finished passport within 90 seconds. A completely finished passport by definition must need no further lamination, assembly, or die-cutting. b) Must print the photo, the fixed data, and the variable bio-data on the reverse side of a film-like material that then bonds to a blank page in the passport book inside the printer. c) Data page must become destroyed and rendered not usable upon attempts to alter or remove the photograph and/or the data from the passport book. d) Must be able to be deployed to produce identical end products at large volume (3,000,000 units annually) sites for centralized printing, at small volume (under 30,000 units annually) sites at the decentralized field agencies, and for one-at-a-time situations in stand alone configurations for emergencies. e) Must be able to be integrated into the current passport issuance system at each agency which is a UNIX-based application written in INFORMIX that operates under TCP/IP in a PC/LAN environment. f) Must not produce an insert-type data page requiring a subsequent lamination process of any kind outside of the printer to attach the insert to the passport book. g) Must produce a high quality and continuous tone photo-like image of the passport bearer in color using dye sublimation print technology. h) Must produce passports which meet all requirements for machine readable passports as specified by the International Civil Aviation Organization (Doc 9303). i) The printer and its consumables must be fully developed products and must be immediately available for delivery. The Department will require a minimum of seven printers and associated printer supplies and associated document consumables and options for an additional 493 printers over the proposed contract life of one base year with four option years. SEE NOTES 12 and 22 (0032)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0217 19960202\70-0001.SOL)