Hybrid Multimode Reader

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 Hybrid Multimode Reader (HMR).  Interested parties shall describe their organization's capabilities in relation to the following requirements:

1. The HMR shall have four detection modes: (1) ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis) absorbance, (2) fluorescence intensity, (3) luminescence, and (4) fluorescence polarization.
2. The HMR shall combine an independent monochromator fluorescent optical system with an independent filter-based fluorescence optical system in the same instrument.
3. The HMR shall have quadruple scientific grating optical design with two gratings per monochromator for improved spectral performance.
4. The HMR shall have continuously variable bandwidth monochromators for fluorescence measurements in 1 nm increments.
5. The HMR must have fiber-free filter-based optics for increased optical efficiency.
6. The HMR must have top and bottom automatic focus adjustment to automatically accommodate plates of various height and various fluid levels across a plate.
7. The HMR must have automatic, individual, well-by-well absorbance path length correction to calculate corrected results and compensate for pipetting errors in microplates.
8. The HMR shall have four read methods: (1) end point, (2) kinetic, (3) spectral scanning, (4) well-area scanning.
9. The HMR shall have the capability of measuring multiwell plates including 6-, 12-, 24-, 96-, 384-, and 1536-well plates.
10. The HMR shall have the capability of measuring Petri and cell culture dishes that have different geometries, including v-bottom, flat bottom, and u-bottom.
11. The HMR shall be compatible with the Agilent BioTek Take3 microvolume plates and support measurements with these plates.
12. The HMR shall have 3 shaking modes: (1) linear, (2) orbital, (3) double orbital.
13. The HMR shall have the capability for temperature control, specifically 4-zone incubation up to 70 °C with +/- 2 °C precision and condensation control.
14. The HMR shall be compatible with existing automation, specifically the NIST Living Measurements Systems Foundry, which includes a Hamilton STAR liquid hander, (2) BioTek Synergy Neo2 multimode readers, and (4) BioTek Epoch spectrophotometers.
15. The HMR shall have an ambient operating range of 15 °C to 35 °C.
16. The HMR shall have a compact footprint, no larger than 40 cm (width) x 54 cm (depth) x 42 cm (height) for installation into the existing laboratory space.
17. The HMR shall weigh less than 80 kg (175 lb) for installation into the existing laboratory space.
18. The HMR shall have a voltage rating of 200/208/240 V and a maximum power consumption of 250 W for installation into the existing laboratory space.

NIST anticipates issuing a Request for Quotation in the fourth quarter of FY24 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 results of this market research 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. Description of your company’s capabilities as they relate to the equipment described in this notice.
4. A description of 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 that is not listed above which the Government should consider in finalizing its market research.
7. Place of Manufacture: Is more than 55% of item manufactured domestically, 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.