This is a combined synopsis/solicitation for commercial items prepared in accordance with the format in Subpart 12.6, as supplemented with additional information included in this notice. This announcement constitutes the only solicitation; quotes are being requested and a written solicitation will not be issued. Solicitation number 12505B21Q0155 is issued as a request for quote (RFQ). The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2021-07. The associated NAICS code is 334516 Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing with a small business size standard of 1,000 employees and the PSC code is 6640.

The Department of Agriculture (ARS) has the need for the following products and services:

Scope of Work: Purpose is to procure a laser diffraction instrument to measure a wide range of spray droplet sizes. The instrument will allow to measure spray droplet sizes of various aqueous mixtures using laser diffraction technology. This instrument will be used to measure spray droplet size spectrum of aqueous mixtures of surfactant or crop protection products to understand its effects in spray droplet size spectrum. Eventually, a prediction model or tool with artificial intelligent to predict spray droplet sizes of crop protection products based on their ingredients once we have sufficient amount of data.

            Background: ATRU will conduct research to build a database of spray droplet size spectrum of aqueous mixtures with various crop protection product ingredients in enclosed spray chamber. The database will be eventually used to build a prediction model to anticipate its impacts on spray droplet size spectrum based on ingredients of crop protection products. This project will bring much attention from crop protection product manufacturing industry.

CONTRACTOR REQUIREMENTS

              Technical Requirements/Tasks: Provide and deliver one Laser diffraction laser instrument to measure spray droplet size spectrum with the following characteristics/capabilities.

• The length of the instrument must be no more than 1400 mm to place on the instrument tray in a custom-designed spray chamber.
• The operating software for the instrument must be able to analyze measurement data in other computers without the instrument for post analysis.
• The operating software for the instrument must have a correction algorithm for multiple scattering to have more accurate measurement results.
• The instrument must have dust and liquid ingress protection for spray test environments, at least IP65 protection rate.
• The instrument should have a signal detector with a scan rate of 2.4 kHz at least.
• The instrument should be able to measure a droplet size spectrum for droplets with diameters from 2 to 2000 micrometer with one lens.
• The instrument should be able to automatically align its optical parts.
• The instrument should be able to upgrade the measurement range with replacing with lens by the user.
• The validation of the instrument measurement should be available up on request to the manufacturer.
• Instrument’s transmitter and receiver should communicate with a simple multi-conductor cable without exposed cable to prevent damage during spray droplet size measurement work or moving the instrument.

The government intends to award a firm-fixed price award based on the lowest price technically acceptable product. The lowest priced product will be evaluated first; if not found acceptable, the next lowest priced product will be evaluated, and so on until an acceptable product is identified. The government will not review higher priced products if the lowest priced product is determined to be technically acceptable. For a vendor’s products to be considered technically acceptable, they must meet all of the technical requirements identified in the solicitation.

            Deliverables / Schedule:

        The instrument should be delivered by the end of the 2021.  Delivery location is 1680 Madison Ave, Wooster, Ohio 44691. The vendor shall provide all items F.O.B: destination. The Government anticipates award of a Firm Fixed Price contract.

Submitting a Quote:

To be eligible for an award, all contractors must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) with a current and active registration. A contractor can contact SAM by calling 1-866-606-8220 or e-mail at www.sam.gov. NO EXCEPTIONS. A DUNS (Dun and Bradstreet) number is required in order to register. Vendor must also include their DUNS# on their quote.

Also, to be eligible, all vendors must be NDAA 889 Certified. If they do not currently have a NDAA 889 Certification, then they must complete the attached NDAA 889 Certification form and submit it to [email protected] so that they can be added to the list of NDAA 889 Certified vendors.

The submission and payment of invoices on the resulting contract will be made through the Invoice Processing Platform (IPP). As such, vendors must be currently registered or register in IPP in order to be able to submit and receive payment on invoices for the resulting contract.  

Offerors responding to this announcement shall submit their quote on SF 1449 (see attached). The quote should include all fees, delivery charges, and/or surcharges.

Only electronic submissions will be accepted. Please email all quotes in writing on the SF 1449 to [email protected] by no later than Friday, September 24, 2021 at 1:00 PM Central Standard Time.

Questions in regards to this combined synopsis/solicitation must be submitted through email and are due no later than 12:00 PM CST on Monday, September 17, 2021. Answers to any questions received by that time will be posted as an amendment to this combined synopsis/solicitation.