6640--Brand Name or Equal Triple Quad Liquid Chromatography (LC) / Mass Spectrometry (MS) Systems

Sources Sought The Veterans Affairs North Texas Veterans Healthcare System (VANTXHCS) has a requirement for lease-to-own two (2) Liquid Chromatography (LC) / Mass Spectrometry (MS) Systems. The equipment should meet or exceed the specifications below for brand name or equivalent to the Agilent 6475 Triple Quad LC / MS System. This is a lease to own requirement. The Government will retain the title of the equipment at the end of the contract period. The Department of Veterans Affairs , Network Contracting Office (NCO) 17 on behalf of VA North Texas Healthcare System is issuing this Sources Sought Notice in accordance with RFO 10.001 to determine the availability and technical capabilities of qualified sources. Salient characteristics and additional information is provided below. NCO 17 is seeking a qualified source to provide brand name or equal to the Agilent 6475 Triple Quad LC/MS System with associated hardware, consumables, installation, training and maintenance services. NCO 17 intends to award a Firm-Fixed Price (FFP) contract to a supplier of this equipment. The associated North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS) code for this procurement is 334516 - Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing, Small Business Standard Size 1,000 Employees; Product Service Code: 6640 Laboratory Equipment and Supplies. The RFO Provision found at 52.204-7 requires that All interested Offerors must be registered in SAM.gov prior to submitting an offer or quotation. You may access the website at SAM.gov | Home. All offerors must be certified with the appropriate NAICS code on the SAM website. All SDVOSB/VOSB offerors must be verified in the SBA database at: https://certifications.sba.gov/ at the time of proposal submission. Submissions for this source sought shall be submitted by email no later than April 28, 2026, at 12:00 pm EST. If you are a vendor that can provide the requested information and required supplies described below with competitive pricing, send your information (to include your organization's Unique Entity Identifier number) with a description of proof of capability to kathryn.prose@va.gov. This notice is for planning purposes only and does not constitute a commitment on the part of the Government to award a contract, nor does the Government intend to pay for any information submitted as a result of this notice. This is a sources-sought looking for businesses to provide the supplies listed below for market research purposes. No awards for a contract will be made from this announcement. The information provided herein is subject to change and in no way binds the Government to solicit for, or award, a competitive contract. It is emphasized that this is a notice solely for planning and informational purposes. Additionally, please provide answers as appropriate to the following questions in the table below with your response to this sources-sought. Failure to respond to the following questions may affect the acquisition strategy. 1.  Identify your organization's socio-economic category.  2.  Identify if your organization is the manufacturer of the requested supplies. If you are not the manufacturer, identify the manufacturer of the supplies that you will provide, their socio-economic category and a letter showing that your organization is an authorized distributor for the requested supplies.   3. Identify if the proposed equipment can meet the Brand Name or Equal requirement. 4.  Fill out the attached certificate under RFO Provision 52.225-6, Trade Agreement Certificate, identifying the item and its country of origin. (https://www.acquisition.gov/far/part-52#FAR_52_225_6). A description of designated countries can be found at RFO Clause 52.225-5, Trade Agreement (https://www.acquisition.gov/far/part-52#FAR_52_225_5) If the product is a US domestic end product, write in USA for the item's country of origin. The certificate must be completed for each proposed line item. 5.  State whether any of the requested supplies may be ordered against a government contract awarded to your organization (e.g Federal Supply Schedule (FSS), General Services Administration (GSA), etc.).  6.  Address whether your organization meets the requirements of 13 CFR 121.406 (b)(1)(i), (b)(1)(ii) and (b)(1)(iii) (https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-13/chapter-I/part-121/subpart-A/subject-group-ECFR0fca5207262de47/section-121.406#p-121.406(b)).  7.  State if subcontracting is contemplated for this requirement and what percentage of the requirement will be subcontracted and for what tasks.  RFO Clause 52.219-14 Limitations on Subcontracting may apply to this procurement. VAAR 852.219-76 VA Notice of Limitations on Subcontracting Certificate of Compliance for Supplies and Products, will apply to the potential solicitation if set-aside, if applicable. Veterans Affairs Acquisition Regulation (VAAR) VAAR 852.219-73 VA Notice of Total Set-Aside for Certified Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned Small Businesses may apply to this procurement if applicable. VAAR 852.219-74 VA Notice of Total Set-Aside for Certified Veteran-Owned Small Businesses may apply to this procurement if applicable. 8.  Provide estimated shipping and delivery information for the requested supplies (e.g. Expected lead time on delivery).  *If applicable, VAAR 852.212-71 Gray Market Items, will apply to the potential solicitation.*  The Mass Spectrometers shall include all system hardware, software, filters, purging bottles, waste containers, uninterruptible power supply (UPS), a nitrogen generator, and any other components required to make the system fully operational upon installation. The contractor will also be required to install the equipment, provide training, and maintain the equipment for the length of the lease. This is a lease to own requirement. The Government will retain the title of the equipment at the end of the contract period. The following describes the salient characteristics salient characteristics of the Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (LC/MS) systems. Mass Analyzer and Performance Requirements. Triple quadrupole mass spectrometer with a mass range of at least m/z 5 3000. Capable of scan speeds 18,000 Da/sec to support fast chromatographic separations. Mass resolution options including 0.4 Da, 0.7 Da, 1.2 Da, and 2.5 Da (FWHM) for flexible method development. Mass accuracy within ±0.1 Da across the majority of operating mass range. Mass stability with drift <0.1 Da over 24 hours. Sensitivity and Quantitation Requirements. Instrument detection limits in the low-femtogram range (<5 fg) for both positive and negative ionization modes. Signal-to-noise ratios exceeding 850,000:1 for standard sensitivity verification compounds. Linear dynamic range of at least six orders of magnitude for quantitation. Ion Source and Ionization Flexibility. Must support Electrospray Ionization (ESI) and Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization (APCI). Must offer multimode ionization that enables simultaneous ESI and APCI. Must be compatible with low-flow nano spray ionization for increased sensitivity. MRM Throughput and Acquisition Requirements. Capable of 500 MRM transitions per second. Minimum dwell times of 0.5 ms. Support for Dynamic MRM (dMRM) and Triggered MRM (tMRM). Ability to run >30,000 transitions per method. Polarity and Collision Cell Performance. Fast polarity switching <25 ms to allow multianalyte methods. Collision cell clearance time <1 ms to prevent crosstalk in dense MRM methods. Instrument Intelligence and Automated Maintenance. Must include predictive maintenance tools such as Early Maintenance Feedback (EMF). Must have built in autotune and check tune routines requiring no manual parameter adjustments. Must include automation features such as iReflex that trigger reinjections or extended runs without user intervention. Maintenance and Uptime Requirements. System must offer VacShield or equivalent capability allowing ion source and front-end cleaning without breaking instrument vacuum, minimizing downtime. Total downtime for routine source cleaning must not exceed 30 45 minutes. Software and Data System Requirements. Compatible with comprehensive LC/MS data acquisition and quantitation software. Must support full scan, SIM, product ion scan, precursor ion scan, neutral loss scans, MRM, tMRM, dMRM, and mixed mode acquisition in a single method. Software must support automated reporting, audit trails, and features compliant with regulated environments (such as 21 CFR Part 11). Physical and Integration Requirements. Instrument dimensions approximately 77 cm × 84 cm × 48 cm to fit existing laboratory space. Delivery and Installation. The instruments must be delivered and installed in a reasonable timeframe , but not to exceed ninety (90) days after receipt of the contract award. If unseen circumstances arise, the contractor will coordinate with the Government Point of Contact (POC). Contractor shall install the instruments and all accessories at no additional cost to the Government. Instrument Services and Maintenance. The Contractor shall provide an extended warranty and/or service plan for the life of the contract. The plan shall include: Telephone Support On-Site hardware troubleshooting and repair All labor, travel costs, and service parts, including consumables parts required for repair at no additional cost to the Government. Training. The contractor shall provide the following: Initial on-site operator training for instruments. Initial off-site operator training for two operators. Applications and Method development assistance. Handouts and training materials in sufficient quantity for each participant. These are off-the-shelf courses. The contractor shall provide lesson plan, course materials and media (DVD s, CD s, videos, etc. if required), and editable procedures at no additional cost. Additional on-site training as requested by VANTXHCS at no additional charge.