The purpose of this amendment is to respond to vendor's questions.

Questions and Answers:

1. Clarification regarding the "Residual Stress Capabilities". How critical the residual stress capabilities are for the  intended application. Is this a mandatory requirement, or would a system without this feature still meet the Government needs?
   • Government Response: A mandatory requirement for this equipment is to have stress analysis built into the software package.

2. There is  a statement indicating that no water chiller is requested on the instrument.  All benchtop systems are built with water chillers. Is this a mistake?

   • Government Response: Research has revealed that not all benchtop systems use water chillers , some benchtop system are air cooled and not water cooled. This requirement is for a tabletop powder diffractometer that is air cooled and not water cooled. Ultimately the benchtop system must not require a water supply.

Tabletop Power Diffractometer.  Minimum salient characteristics, the XRD must:

• be capable of operating at or above 500 C.
• be capable of analyzing powders
• use only air cooling (no water or coolant required)
• be accurate to 0.02 degrees 2*theta
• have external operating station with software included
• have scan speed up to 100 degrees / minute
• provide at least one-time access to the crystallography open database
• include software that has Rietveld refinement and residual stress capabilities
• include installation, training, and at least 1 year warranty