Opportunity: OXFORD INSTRUMENTS

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), intends to award a firm fixed price purchase order to Oxford Instruments America Inc., located in Concord, MA for an Integrated AZtecHKL system, also known as an Electron Back-Scattered Diffraction (EBSD) system to add to the existing Tescan SEM. Award will be made in accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 13.106-(b) (1) and the procedures at FAR Part 12 entitled, Acquisition of Commercial Items and FAR Part 13 entitled, Simplified Acquisition Procedures. Oxford Instruments America Inc is, to the USGS¿ knowledge, the only source who can provide the necessary equipment. The TESCAN SEM is presently equipped with an Oxford X-MaxN EDS (energy dispersive spectrometer) detector which allows for rapid and sensitive semi-quantitative chemical analyses and chemical mapping of microscopic areas of solids, such as minerals, glasses, and fossils.The SEM is installed with the Oxford X-MaxN Energy Dispersive Spectrometer and associated AZtec software. Installation of another brand would prohibit sample data collection integration. The purpose of this notice is to satisfy the requirements of FAR Subpart 5.2. This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotes. However, all responsible parties may submit a quotation by the closing date of this announcement which shall be considered by the agency. No solicitation will be issued. A determination not to compete this action based upon responses received is in the sole discretion of the Government. NOTE: All information submitted in response to this notice is voluntary. The Government will not pay for information provided nor will it compensate any respondent for any cost incurred in developing information provided to the Government. Materials submitted to the Government for review will not be returned. The NAICS code for this action is 334516 Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing, 1000 employees. Responses or inquiries shall only be accepted through electronic mail addressed to Gerry Lewandowski at glewando@usgs.gov and must be uploaded and received in their entirety no later than January 31, 2019 12:00 pm Eastern. Responses submitted by hardcopy or the FedConnect web portal or the FedConnect Message Center shall not be accepted or considered.