Amnd02-QandA-SOL-RFQ1333ND21QNB640545.pdf

Amendment 0002 RFQ-1333ND21QNB640545

Brief Description-AMENDMENT 0002 NIST 1333ND21QNB640545

REQUIREMENTS: Seven+ Axis Collaborative Robot Arm with Grippers & Linear Translation Rail

The following Amendment 0002 is issued to 1.) publish Questions submitted by Vendors and the responses; 2.) revise specifications within the Combined Synopsis/Solicitation as a result of the questions; and 3.) provide an extension for the submission of quotes.

Questions

1. The associated attachment drawing Fig 1a shows six rotational joints on what appears as an industrial robot format and not accounting for the grippers in that count? Reasoning is they are listed as separate line items and utilize different forms of technology to may or may not classify them as an axis. Typically, the eight axis that is described is the seventh.

Answer: Fig 1a in the PDF “Attachment for RFQ 1333ND21QNB640545 SOR 7axArm.pdf” was updated and is replaced with a new attachment which properly shows the count of the number of axis. The prior attachment does not show either the 7th axis specified in item 1 nor the 8th axis specified in item 4.

The seventh axis is a rotation axis on the arm, not shown in the original fig. 1a (a convention 6-axis design). The location of the 7th axis is at the discretion of the vendor as long as it meets the requirements. It is usually located between the B axis and L axis.

The eight axis is the linear rail upon which the arm is mounted.

The degrees of freedom of the gripper (finger separation) are not treated as an axis.

“Attachment for RFQ 1333ND21QNB640545 SOR 7axArm.pdf” was replaced with “Revised Fig1a Attachment RFQ1333ND21QNB640545.pdf” and “Revised Fig1b Attachment RFQ1333ND21QNB640545.pdf”

2. The chart shown on page 5 of 18, Due Dates. With the present situation with COT’s materials availability are these dates flexible? Present we have been seeing commitment dated exceeding eight week for certain products and linear rail system have been one that has been affected. Just want to make sure we would not be disqualified for presenting this fact up front. Please confirm.

Answer: NIST is revising this requirement for 12 weeks from date of award. The Contractor shall provide documentation with their quote to support a different delivery schedule based on current supply chain disruptions as a result of the COVID-19 Pandemic for consideration of a revised delivery schedule at time of award.

3. The Hardware section, page 2 of 18. There are two, line items we were looking for clarification.

Line Item 1 describes what the robot should be capable of lifting. Is the expectation the system will have manual changeover of the end effector?

Amendment 0002 RFQ-1333ND21QNB640545

Answer: You state the ability of the robot arm lifting abilities which is found on page 2 of 18, CLIN 0001, A. Hardware, 1. Which is tied to your question about the expectation for the manual changeover of the end effector. After review, to answer your question, CLIN 0002 and CLIN 0003 descriptions were updated to address and clearly state the two specified items will be exchanged manually.

4. Line Item 18 states a footprint, weight etc. Can you clarify this because based on the size of the robot described, robot control panel, requested linear travel and adding in the attachment Fig 1b. the dimensional information exceeds the requested requirement as a whole, could you please clarify what this line is describing?

Answer: CLIN 0001; A. Hardware, 1 through 19 apply to the arm only and not the arm + CLIN 0004.

5. CLIN 0002: State Actuator Only (no Fingers), is this stating Your team will be designing the fingers?

Answer: It states in CLIN 0002, 3. shall allow facile replacement of fingers for in-house customization. It is being revised to state: 3. shall allow facile replacement of fingers (if supplied) for in-house customization of fingers by NIST.

6. Per Line Item 4 under that CLIN (0002) we must supply the gripper drawing or Data sheet for the actuator not the actual finger design or is that not the expectation?

Answer: Per CLIN 0002, 4.; As specified, the drawings are for the proposed A 2-Finger Parallel or Adaptive Gripper or actuator, to enable our design of custom fingers.

The due date and time for receipt of quotations is extended from September 8, 2021 to September 10, 2021 no later than 4:00PM EST.