SOURCES SOUGHT
66 -- Stem Cell Treatment Station Robotic Platform
- Notice Date
- 7/3/2014
- Notice Type
- Sources Sought
- NAICS
- 334516
— Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing
- Contracting Office
- Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Station Support/Simplified Acquisitions, 31 Center Drive, Room 1B59, Bethesda, Maryland, 20892
- ZIP Code
- 20892
- Solicitation Number
- HHS-NIH-NIDA-SSSA-SS-14-396
- Archive Date
- 7/29/2014
- Point of Contact
- Lauren M. Phelps, Phone: 3015942490
- E-Mail Address
-
lauren.phelps@nih.gov
(lauren.phelps@nih.gov)
- Small Business Set-Aside
- N/A
- Description
- Contracting Office Address: Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, Station Support Simplified Acquisitions, 31 Center Drive, Room 1B59, Bethesda, MD 20892, UNITED STATES. Introduction: THIS NOTICE IS POSTED CONCURRENTLY WITH NOTICE HHS-NIH-NIDA-SSSA-SBSS-14-395 WHICH IS SPECIFIC TO SMALL BUSINESSES. HHS-NIH-NIDA-SSSA-SS-14-396, HOWEVER, IS OPEN TO RESPONSE FROM BUSINESSES OF ALL SIZE CLASSIFICATIONS. This is a Sources Sought notice. This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, or quotations. The purpose of this notice is to obtain information regarding: (1) the availability and capability of qualified business sources, (2) whether they are large businesses, small businesses; HUBZone small businesses, service-disabled, veteran-owned small businesses; 8(a) small businesses; veteran-owned small businesses; woman-owned small businesses; or small disadvantaged businesses; and (3) their size classification relative to the North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the proposed acquisition. Your responses to the information requested will assist the Government in determining the appropriate acquisition method, including whether a set-aside is possible. Purpose and Objectives for the Procurement: The purpose of this potential requirement is acquisition of one (1) fully automated enclosed robotic platform including ambient storage and robotic arm with the ability to be integrated with existing peripheral equipment as well as a Labcyte Echo to encompass the capabilities necessary for a Stem Cell Treatment Station. This equipment will be used to support the mission of the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS). This requirement shall hereby be referred to as "Described Robotic Platform" (DRP) for the remainder of this document. Project Requirements: The Contractor must be able to provide one (1) DRP with the following characteristics: 1. The DRP must measure no larger than 8'L x 7'W x 8'H, including enclosure, due to space constraints. 2. The DRP must be fully enclosed to prevent contamination of cells and siRNA samples. 3. The DRP must include an integrated ambient storage system that fits 384-well microtiter plates and pipette tip boxes for the Biomek FX. 4. The integrated ambient storage system must be random access. 5. The ambient storage carousel must have - High Speed Plate Storage: the system needs the ability to retrieve and store plates in 12 seconds. Also, storage needs the ability to quickly inventory all plate types within 60 seconds 6. The integrated ambient storage system must hold a minimum of 300 pieces of labware to accommodate the entire library collection of 189 plates plus pipette tips, multiple destination plates and also leaves room for future expansion. 7. The DRP must have quick delidding and lidding capabilities. 8. The DRP must run from a dynamic scheduling software and be able to optimize throughput in order to run as many samples as possible and minimize evaporation. 9. The scheduling interface must be user-friendly such that a biologist can potentially create and run their protocol. 10. The scheduling software must be reliable to avoid detrimental system crashes. 11. The scheduling software requires the ability to run custom scripting components in order to track source and destination plate association as well as correlation of aspirations and dispenses from and to specific wells. 12. The scheduling software must be able to fully recover from errors that may occur during a run. 13. The robotic arm used on the DRP will need to have access to all devices specifically with a horizontal reach of 450mm and a vertical reach of 750mm. The tolerance shall be + or - 25mm. 14. The robotic arm will need to be taught all system positions using a quick and simple process such that a biologist could potentially handle this task. 15. The robotic arm and more specifically gripper must be able to pick and place labware very reliably to avoid losing expensive samples/experiments due to poor accuracy. 16. The DRP must be able to have Brooks Automation XPeel, Agilent Technologies VSpin, Beckman Coulter Biomek FX, Labcyte Echo integrated. 17. It is extremely important that the DRP be capable of handling, tracking and associating 150 source plates to a few destination plates in a single run taking no longer than 3 hours. 18. Robot envelope: provides user with the exceptional reach and range in both the x, y and z-axis. The minimum z-axis travel must be 745 mm 19. The DRP must have - Product accessibility: full access to all devices using a turntable or sliding shelves to access devices with simplistic cable management is required. 20. The DRP must have - Modular system design: the ability to easily reconfigure the system in less than 60 seconds 21. The DRP must include Echo expansion software for cherry picking and and IC50. The DRP must have the ability to manipulate cherry picking and IC50 on the Echo via a standard, non-custom interface. 22. Software must have - User Experience: the software incorporates the latest software technologies to ensure that whether designing protocols, or launching an order, the focus is always on a user-friendly interface, backed up by the highest levels of application reliability 23. Software must have - Order Interleaving and Scheduling: can run multiple orders in parallel, and supports injection of new orders with time or event-based control. 24. Software must have - Gantt Chart Simulations: Fast Gantt Chart simulations with accurate protocol timing data that allows operators to use detailed sample treatment and resource utilization statistics to quantitatively optimize their orders before run-time 25. Software must have - Sample Input Control: A wide range of sample input control mechanisms can be used to balance throughput and sample treatment for the required application 26. Software must have - Device Pooling: Supports a wide range of pooling options for all classes of device, even complex liquid handlers. Strategies including "first available", "round robin" and "fail over" can be defined during protocol design and then dynamically adjusted while orders are live on the system 27. Software must have - Scripting Components: allows operators to run custom scripting components not embedded into the software. Multiple languages must be supported (for example, Java, VB or.NET), scripts must have access to a number of run time variables including plate number and barcode 28. Software must have - Decision Nodes: using the results of a custom script execution to alter a plate's processing pathway mid-run 29. Software must have - Plate processing manipulation: provides the ability to manipulate assay handling parameters of a specific plate mid-run 30. Software must have - Device Control: the ability to remove a device from the system during a run to use in stand alone mode and then, once action is complete, return the device back into active use on the platform is required. This action must not allow stoppage of the protocol. Delivery and installation shall be performed by the contractor. Prior to delivery a factory acceptance test must be performed in the presence of a person(s) from the NCATS. Post-delivery, the contractor shall perform a site acceptance test to ensure the system is in working order. Anticipated Period of Performance: It is expected that the factory acceptance testing, delivery, installation, and site acceptance testing will be completed within three (3) months after contractor receipt of order. A firm fixed price contract is contemplated. Capability Statement: Contractors that believe they possess the ability to provide the required equipment should submit documentation of their ability to meet each of the project requirements to the Contract Specialist. Contractors must provide their Company Name, DUNS number, Physical Address, and Point of Contact Information. Interested organizations are required to identify their type of business, applicable North American Industry Classification System Code, and size standards in accordance with the Small Business Administration. The government requests that no proprietary or confidential business data be submitted in a response to this notice. However, responses that indicate the information therein is proprietary will be properly safeguarded for Government use only. Capability statements must include the name and telephone number of a point of contact having authority and knowledge to discuss responses with Government representatives. Capability statements in response to this market survey that do not provide sufficient information for evaluation will be considered non-responsive. When submitting this information, please reference the solicitation notice number. All capability statements sent in response to this Sources Sought Notice must be submitted electronically (via email) to Lauren Phelps, Contract Specialist, at Lauren.Phelps@nih.gov in MS Word format by or before the closing date of this announcement. All responses must be received by the specified due date and time in order to be considered. Note: This notice does not obligate the Government to award a contract or otherwise pay for the information provided in the response. No proprietary, classified, confidential, or sensitive information should be included in your response. The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any organization responding to this notice should ensure that its response is complete and sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the organization's qualifications to perform the work. Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received or provide feedback to respondents with respect to any information submitted. After review of the responses received, pre-solicitation and solicitation notices may be published in Federal Business Opportunities. However, responses to this notice will not be considered adequate responses to a solicitation. The solicitation release date is pending. The Government intends to negotiate a fixed-price contract.
- Web Link
-
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/HHS/NIH/NIDA-2/HHS-NIH-NIDA-SSSA-SS-14-396/listing.html)
- Place of Performance
- Address: Rockville, Maryland, 20850, United States
- Zip Code: 20850
- Zip Code: 20850
- Record
- SN03415073-W 20140705/140704000535-903b46d0d156e9e5d4286c839b602d82 (fbodaily.com)
- Source
-
FedBizOpps Link to This Notice
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