Notice of Intent: The USDA, ARS, SEA intends to award a sole source procurement to Keyence Corp of America, 669 River Dr. Ste. 403, Elmwood Park, NJ, 07407-1361, as they are the sole source for this type of instrument pursuant to the authority of 41 U.S.C. 253(c)(l ) and FAR 13.106-1(b)(1)(i) Only One Responsible Source and No Other Supplies or Services Will Satisfy Agency Requirements. The award will be for the purchase of one BZX Fluorescence Microscope including the following: BZX Fluoresence Microscope Head BZX Fluorescence Microscope Controller BZ Support Package BZX Multi-Stack Module BZX Analyzer Software BZ Nikon Objective Lens (20x Phase), CFI S Plan Fluor ELWD ADM 20X BZ Nikon Objective Lens (4x), CFI Plan APO 4X Lambda BZ Nikon Objective Lens (10x), CFI Plan APO 10X Lambda Shipping and Handling And meet the following requirements, -The microscope must be operable without a darkroom providing an observation environment that does not compromise the background contrast necessary for fluorescence observation, -The microscopes system must include an electronic shutter, electronic XY/Z stage, electronic revolver, electronic filter turret, electronic color filters, phase-contrast slit electronic switching mechanism, electronic dimmer filter, and electronic aperture control are standard-equipped, all operable with a mouse, -The electronic XV axes stage must have a stroke of 100 mm x 64 mm or larger, and a minimum travel pitch of 1 - m or smaller. The electronic Z axis stage must have a stroke of at least 8 mm and a minimum pitch of 0.1 - m or smaller, -There must be four parts that allow for fluorescence filter switching, -Objective lens with a magnification of 2x to 100x should be mountable. Up to six lenses should be mountable at a time, -The microscope shall be equipped with a cooled monochrome CCD with a cooling temperature more than 2s2c below ambient temperature. Additionally, a mechanism that captures images in full color, with the insertion of color filters via electronic control, should be available, and -The microscope (main unit) shall be installable within a space of 500 mm (H) x 350 mm (W} x 500 mm (D) with its panel closed. -The microscope needs to be equipped with a navigation function with which the observation point moves to the location clicked on the wide-area map image, enabling high-magnification observation while having an overall picture with a wide-area map Image that is keyed to the XV stage coordinate information. All mountable lenses should allow the generation of a wide-area map Image. -The microscope needs to be equipped with a function that seamlessly stitches images (maximum of 50,000 x 50,000 pixels) captured via the automatic range set-up when the imaging range is specified by clicking on the edge of the specified range, using any mountable lens. -Must have an optical sectioning capability that is unaffected by fluorescence blurring during fluorescence imaging. -The microscope needs to be equipped with a function that automatically selects cells based on contour and color contrast and automatically takes count and calculates the area, perimeter, Feret diameter, longest diameter, shortest diameter, and the integrated value of luminance. There should also be a function that uses the selected Image information as a mask area to perform automatic counting upon re-setting the conditions for the images in each area, also enabling an easy measurement of area ratio. -The system needs to enable outputting, as a conditions file, of measurement conditions used with an automatic counting function. Furthermore, the system should have a macro processing function that performs automatic counting on multiple image files at once with the same conditions based on the conditions file. -The microscope needs to be equipped with a function that records videos at a frame rate of 95 fps or higher. -Images need to be recorded at 12,000,000 pixels or more. -The microscope needs to allow for the mounting of temperature/CO2 regulated chamber for time-lapse imaging. The mounted chamber should allow for multi-well plates to be set inside it. The proposed vendor is the only known distributor of this equipment. The Government intends to award a firm fixed price Purchase Order on or about August 28, 2019, using Simplified Acquisition Procedures. This Notice of lntent is not considered a Request for Quotation (RFQ) nor is it a Request for Proposals (RFP). No solicitation document is available and telephone requests will not be honored. Interested persons may identify their interest and capability to respond to this requirement. A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed contract based on responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the Government. The Government will consider all responses received by 2:00 PM central time, August 27, 2019. Information received will be considered solely for determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Inquiries will only be accepted via email to the points of contact listed: Place of Performance: USDA-ARS 2700 Savannah Highway Charleston, SC 29414 Primary Point of Contact.: Jessica Pacheco Contract Specialist jessica.pacheco@ars.usda.gov Secondary Point of Contact.: Nicholas Langley Contract Specialist nicholas.langley@ars.uda.gov
