Apochromatic Stereoscope

THIS IS A COMBINED SYNOPSIS/SOLICITATION FOR COMMERCIAL ITEMS PREPARED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE FORMAT IN FAR SUBPART 12.6-STREAMLINED PROCEDURES FOR EVALUATION AND SOLICITATION FOR COMMERCIAL ITEMS-AS SUPPLEMENTED WITH ADDITIONAL INFORMATION INCLUDED IN THIS NOTICE. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONSTITUTES THE ONLY SOLICITATION; QUOTATIONS ARE BEING REQUESTED; AND A WRITTEN SOLICITATION DOCUMENT (I.E. STANDARD FORM) WILL NOT BE ISSUED. This solicitation is a Request for Quotation (RFQ).

The solicitation document and incorporated provisions and clauses are those in effect through Federal Acquisition Circular 2023-05 effective 08/08/2023. The associated North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for the requirement is 334516- Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing The small business size standard is 1000 Employees. This acquisition shall be procured as a total small business set aside. Simplified acquisition procedures will be utilized.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Engineering Laboratory (EL) Materials and Structural Systems Division (MSSD) studies the durability and service life of infrastructure materials (polymer, concrete, engineered composites) for resilience infrastructure applications. One of the key research focuses is to understand material properties through visualization of the samples and objects that cannot be seen with the unaided eye.

Documentation of an object’s visual characteristics is important for documentation of samples throughout experimental studies for creating repositories of images for experimental integrity and evidence-based conclusions. The MSSD operates various microscopes for visual characterization of various materials, but most operate on samples of minute size including glass slides (1 x 2) or materials embedded in 1” diameter epoxy pucks.

Macroscopic samples, such as concrete core, would need to be sectioned down to a small area that is not always representative of the material. Furthermore, when analyzing materials, orienting analysis by macro imaging is helpful for comprehension of other results, microscopy or otherwise. Stereoscopy is useful in viewing images from large, multi-dimensional data sets produced by experimental data.

Stereoscopes are useful in inspection of larger objects, whereas compound or electron microscopy are better for visualization of small specimens, thus complimenting the other microscopes operated by MSSD. The MSSD will benefit from the use of this stereoscope for analysis of various infrastructure materials (polymer, cement, concrete and composites) in the “Engineered Materials for Resilient Infrastructure” program, NCST investigations, and other work in the study of material properties. APPLICABLE ATTACHMENTS Attachment 1 – Requirements Document Attachment 2 – Applicable Provisions and Clauses