U.S. Department of Agriculture, ARS, FMOD, BA, Contracting Section, Bldg. 003, Room 329, 10300 Baltimore Avenue, Beltsville, Md. 20705

66 -- SCIENTIFIC EQUIPMENT, ISOTAPE RATIO MASS SPECTROMETER SOL 28-3K47-96 DUE 082196 POC Keina Burrier, Contract Specialist, 301/504-5888. This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with FAR Subpart 12.6 as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. The announcement constitutes the only solicitation; proposals are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. The solicitation number 28-3K47-96, is issued as a Request for Proposal (RFP), and incorporates provisions and clauses that in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 90-38. The standard industrial classification code is 3827, with a small business standard of 500 employees. This acquisition will be procured on an unrestricted basis. The proposed contract will include one line item for an Isotape Ratio Mass Spectrometer. This unit must be designed as a magnetic sector electromagnet isotape ratio mass spectrometer capable of analysis deuterium/hydrogen, carbon-13/carbon-12, nitrogen-15/nitrogen-14, oxygen-18/oxygen-16, and sulfur-34/sulfur-32. The unit must be capable of handling samples introduced as liquid, solid or gas in a continuous flow, including ratios of deuterium/hydron in gases. The autosampler must have a capacity for 200 gas or 100 solid or liquid samples, and the preparation unit must be capable of combustion and reduction of samples. The vacuum of the mass analyzer must be pumped by two turbomolecular pumps and two rotary pumps capable of producing a vacuum of 0.000000001 mbar. The source and analyzer pressures will be monitored by inverted magnetron gauges. The ion source must be an electron impact, plug-in design. The magnetic sector must have at least an effective 21 cm radius dispersion and double-direction focusing and be designed with deep bucket triple collectors. Precision (in continuous flow operation) must be at least less than or equal to 0.3 ppt for nitrogen-15 vs air, less than or equal to 0.1ppt for carbon-13 vs PDB, less than equal to 0.2ppt for oxygen-18 vs PDB, and less than or equal to 1.5ppt for deuterium vs SMOW. Sensitivity must be for m/z 44 less than or equal to 1100 molecules per ion and at m/z2=3000 molecules per ion. In a continuous flow mode, the abundance sensitivity for carbon dioxide must be less than 30 ppm, for nitrogen gas less than 5 ppm and for deuterium less than 1 ppm. The instrument should be linear between 0.5% and 5% CO2 and deuterium/hydrogen ratios must be able to be corrected by linear regression for the H3+. To include a minimum of 7 days installation, training and set-up, and a minimum of 12 months warranty (parts and Labor). Delivery is FOB destination to the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, Beltsville, Maryland within consignee's premises. Delivery is required on or about December 30, 1996 or within 120 days after award. Any interested/qualified source who belives they can provide the required equipment must respond by 4:30 p.m. August 21, 1996. All such responses will be evaluated in order to determine the ability to meet the above stated capabilities. The Government will award a contract resulting from this solicitation to the responsible offeror whose offer conforming to the solicitation will be most advantageous to the Government, price and other factors considered. The following factors shall be used to evaluate offers; (1) technical capability (2) past performances and (3) price. The offerors shall identify where the offered item meet or does not meet each of the Government functional and performance minimum specifications listed herein. Responses shall include literature, brochures, and other such information corresponding to the required items which demonstrates the capabilities of the offeror's equipment. The following FAR clauses and provisions apply: FAR 52-232-18, Availability of Funds, FAR 52.212.1, Instruction to Offerors-Commercial Items; 52.212-2 Evaluation-Commercial item; with the following evaluation criteria; awarded to a technically acceptable offeror, at fair and reasonable price; 52.212-3, Offeror Representations and Certifications-Commercial Items. The following FAR clauses in paragraph (b) of FAR 52.212-5, Contract Terms and Conditions Required to Implement Statues of Executive Orders-Commercial Items, will apply to the resultant contract; 52.203-6, 52.203-10, 52-219-8, 52.222-26, 52.222-35, 52.222-36, 52.222-37, 52-225-3, and 52.225-21. All offerors must include a completed copy of FAR 52.212-3 with their response. Because this is a commercial item FAR 12.603 (c)(3)(ii) will be used for establishing the solicitation response time rather than the established in Note 22 which, in this instance, is not applicable to this commercial acquisition. (0214)

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