Raman Spectrometer

This is a Sources Sought Notice ONLY.  Requests for copies of a solicitation will not receive a response. 

This Notice is for planning purposes only and is not a Request for Proposal, Request for Quotation, or an obligation on the part of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to conduct a follow-on acquisition.

This Notice assists the Government in determining whether there are any domestically manufactured end product sources for the project title.

NIST does not intend to award a contract based on this Notice or otherwise pay for the information requested.  No entitlement or payment of direct or indirect costs or charges by NIST will arise as a result of the submission of responses to this Notice and NIST's use of such information.  Any proprietary, classified, or sensitive information should be presented as an addendum to the non-restricted/non-proprietary information.  In the absence of such identification, NIST will assume to have unlimited rights to all technical data in the information paper.

NO SOLICITATION DOCUMENTS EXIST AT THIS TIME.

NIST requires a raman spectrometer capable of performing rapid in-line upstream and on-line downstream Raman measurements of mammalian cell cultures and protein biologics.

HARDWARE

• The instrument must be new hardware and not refurbished hardware.
• The instrument must be based on a 785 nm laser
• Instrument must be compatible with Ambr and other benchtop bioreactors
• The instrument must be compatible with Ambr software controls by either an integrated controller or by a connected computer and automated so that all measurements can be performed using defined protocols with no manual interventions required during normal operation.
• The instrument must include defined protocols for calibration and/or quality control of all measured parameters to within manufacturer-specified tolerances.
• The Contractor must provide at least one copy of manual(s) for user operation and maintenance of the instrument in either electronic or hard copy format.
• The instrument must include the option to switch between four channels or probes in different bioprocessing vessels.
• The instrument must be able to measure samples of mammalian cell cultures containing suspended cells.
• The instrument must have automated system health monitoring and fault detection
• The instrument must measure protein concentration
• The instrument must measure glucose concentration
• The instrument must measure lactate concentration
• The instrument must measure other amino acid concentrations
• The instrument must measure pH
• The instrument must measure viable cell density
• The instrument must measure cell viability
• The instrument must measure aggregate concentration
• The instrument must measure glycosylation
• The instrument must detect “break though” or overloading of column capacity
• The instrument must be capable of tangential flow filtration monitoring
• The instrument must be capable of automated data monitoring, analysis and reporting for measured parameters.
• The Contractor shall provide, at a minimum, a one-year warranty for the equipment. The warranty shall cover all parts, labor, and travel. The warranty shall commence upon Government acceptance.

SOFTWARE

If the use of manufacturer-specific or proprietary software is necessary for offline review of measured data or for exporting of measured data to a plaintext format, such as comma separated values (.csv), the Contractor must include one (1) copy of such software compatible with installation on a NIST-provided Windows-10/11 based personal computer (PC).

NIST anticipates issuing a Request for Quotation in the fourth quarter of FY25 and is seeking responses from all responsible sources, including large and small businesses.

The associated North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 334516 – Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing with a small business size standard of 1000 Employees.  Please include your company’s size classification, socio-economic status, and the country of origin of the manufactured end product in any response to this notice. 

After the market research results are obtained and analyzed, NIST may conduct a competitive procurement and subsequently award a contract.  Companies that can provide such items are requested to email a written response describing their abilities to rudolph.spencer@nist.gov no later than the response date for this Sources Sought Notice.

The following information is requested to be provided as part of the response to this Sources Sought Notice:

1. Name, Address, UEID, CAGE code, and point of contact information of your company.
2. Any information on the company’s small business certifications, if applicable.
3. Describe your company’s capabilities as they relate to the equipment described in this notice.
4. Describe your company’s previous experience providing the equipment described in this notice.
5. Indication of whether the equipment described in this notice is currently offered via your company’s GSA Multiple Award Schedule (MAS) contract, Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC), or other existing Governmentwide contract vehicle; and, if so, the contract number(s) for those vehicles.
6. Any other relevant information not listed above that the Government should consider in finalizing its market research.
7. Place of Manufacture: Is more than 55% of item manufactured domestically, and if not where is it manufactured?

Responses are limited to a total of twelve (12) pages. The responses must be in MS Word format.  Pages shall be 8½-inch x 11-inch, using Times New Roman 11 Point Font.  Each page shall have adequate margins on each side (at least one inch) of the page. Header/footer information (which does not include any information to be analyzed) may be included in the 1" margin space.