Redacted Simplified Acquisition Sole Source Justification (FAR 13.5)_Redacted.pdf

Control No:

Contractor: Stratasys, Inc.

Supply/Service: Fortus 450mc 3D Printer exposure to light. Thus, these type of printers will not meet the Government’s minimum requirement.

Laser Sintering printers (such as the EOS industrial 3D Printer described earlier) build the part up layer by layer from material supplied as a fine powder. Laser fusion of thermoplastics does not produce the strength of FDM produced components. Laser sintering does not produce the usable parts desired from an FDM printer and therefore will not meet the Government’s minimum requirement.

FDM printers produce a 3D part by extruding a bead of melted plastic onto a tray and building up the part layer by layer. The resultant piece is true thermoplastic and has all the material properties of parts made by traditional molding techniques. There are numerous desktop FDM printers (such as Makerbot and DREMEL DigiLab) that can only print in a limited number of plastics. These printers also lack the ability to control the temperature of the part during a build via an oven and therefore will not meet the Governments minimum requirement.

The three additional manufacturer printers researched were EOS industrial 3D Printers, Markforged’s X7 and Desktop-type FDM products such as Makerbot and DREMEL DigiLab. Market research concluded that EOS industrial 3D printers use the additive manufacturing technique called Laser Sintering which builds the part up layer by layer from material supplied as a fine powder. Laser sintering does not produce the usable parts desired from an FDM printer. Markforged’s X7 uses FDM and can imbed carbon fiber into the plastic. While this unique trait is desirable from a strength of workable parts point of view, the machine itself is limited in the number of plastics it can print in and excludes ULTEM, which is a requirement of the Government, as stated above in Section

5. Finally, market research efforts surrounding desktop-type FDM products such as Makerbot or DREMEL DigiLab concluded that they lack many of the characteristics needed in an industrial 3D FDM printer such as a large, temperature-controlled build volume and the ability to print in high-strength ULTEM. As a result, will not meet the Government’s minimum requirements.

The Government has determined that an industrial-style FDM 3D printer in thermoplastics is required. Only the Stratasys, Inc. manufactured Fortus 450mc 3D printer can meet these minimum requirements. Due to the inherent sole source nature of this procurement a sources sought was not posted to the sam.beta.gov website.

9. Interested Sources: A synopsis of this requirement was posted to beta.sam.gov from 04 September 2020 through 21 September 2020 to provide notice of the Government’s intent to purchase a sole source strategy with Stratasys, Inc. At the time of the announcement closing, no vendors responded expressing interest. The Government will consider all proposals received prior to the closing date and time of this solicitation.

To date, no other sources have been found to express interest in the acquisition.

10. Other Facts: Not Applicable