USAFA - Dean of Faculty Department of Chemistry TGA 5500 Mass Spectrometer Upgrade Notice of Intent

This is a special notice prepared in accordance (IAW) with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) subpart 5.2 - Synopses of Proposed Contract Actions. The contracting office for this notice is the 10th Contracting Squadron, USAF Academy, CO 80840.

The United States Air Force Academy (USAFA) intends to award a firm-fixed-price single source award to TA Instruments – Waters L.L.C., a large business located at 159 Lukens DR Historic New Castle, Delaware 19720-2765, United States. This procurement is for the acquisition of a commercial item using simplified acquisition procedures IAW FAR parts 12 and 13. The authority for this non-competitive award is FAR 13.106-1(b)(1)(i), only one source reasonably available. The North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) number for this acquisition is 334516, with a business size standard of 1,000 employees. This synopsis is for informational purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation for bids or proposals. DO NOT submit a bid/proposal at this time. The anticipated award date is unknown.

The mass spectrometer upgrade will be an upgrade for a TA Instruments TGA 5500 thermogravimetic analyzer. The mass spectrometer upgrade will include the following items from TA Instruments – Waters L.L.C.:

1. One Pfieffer Thermostar Mass Spectrometer, along with installation service completed by Pfeiffer service specialists.

2. One Mass Spectrometer Upgrade Kit, along with installation service.

3. One Wiley / NIST Mass Spectrometer Library Software.

The mass spectrometer shall meet the following minimum specifications and salient characteristics:

• The mass spectrometer must be a benchtop quadrupole designed and optimized for evolved gas analysis.
• It must be fully compatible with all TA Instrument Thermogravimetric Analyzers, including the Discovery TGAs, QSeries TGAs, and the TGA-HP products. The mass spectrometer must specifically be optimized to work seamlessly and in concert with the Discovery TGA 5000.
• The mass spectrometer must, at minimum, be able to meet the following technical specifications: 
  • Mass range of 1-300 amu
  • Mass resolution of ≥0.5 amu
  • Sensitivity of 50 amu/sec
  • Peak Jump Mode >64 channels/sec
  • Transfer line temperature of 200°C
  • A flexible transfer line with a length of 2.0 meters
  • Capillary size I.D. = 0.22mm
• It must include a cross-beam ion source, a single mass filter, and a dual detector system.
• The dual detector system must include a Faraday detector and a Secondary Electron Multiplier detection system, and the customer must be able to change between these two detectors.
• The mass spectrometer must contain dual filaments that are changeable by the customer.
• The capillary must be quartz and be changeable by the customer.
• Data collection from the mass spectrometer must be able to be controlled from the TA Instruments' TGA instrumentation.
• The mass spectrometer must be able to be programmed to start and stop at any time during the TGA run.
• Instrument setup, control, and experimental parameters, along with mass spectral data analysis, must be achieved through a recipe-driven software interface.
• The mass spectrometer data must be able to be directly imported into TA Instruments' data analysis software and plotted on the same graph as the TGA data. This mass spectrometer data must be compatible with TA Instruments' TRIOS and Universal Analysis programs.
• The mass spectrometer should be customer friendly and allow for basic maintenance by the customer.

THIS NOTICE OF INTENT IS NOT A SOLICITATION, REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL OR A REQUEST FOR QUOTATION. A solicitation package will not be issued. Requests for copies of a solicitation in response to this notice will not be honored or acknowledged. Information received in response to this notice will be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether conducting a competitive procurement in the future is in the best interest of the Government. All information submitted should support the offeror's capability to provide the supplies required and shall be furnished at no cost or obligation to the Government. Responses must be in writing and must provide clear and concise documentation indicating any offeror's capability to provide these supplies. All communication must include Notice ID: DFCHTGAMSUpgrade2024NOI. Verbal responses are not acceptable and will not be considered. Responses and questions shall be received via email by john.perry.33@us.af.mil NLT 26 Aug 2024 at 1400 EST.