Basic Information

Reference Number

0000153491

Issuing Organization

University of Ottawa

Owner Organization

University of Ottawa

Solicitation Type

ACAN - Advance Contract Award Notice (Formal)

Solicitation Number

36158-12a-ACAN

Title

MicroSTARR – ULTRA SENSITIVE TRACER ANALYSIS FOR RADIOISOTOPE RESEARCH

Source ID

PU.AC.ON.11752.C94742

Agreement Types

Broader Public Sector (BPS)

Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement(CETA)

Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA)

Details

Location

Canada, Ontario, National Capital Region

Purchase Type

Duration: TBA

Description

BACKGROUND:
Notice is hereby given by the University of Ottawa of the intent to enter into a contract with Ionplus AG to procure:

One Mini Carbon Dating System (MICADAS) Accelerator Mass Spectrometer complete with IT package, gas interface system (GIS), elemental analyzer (EA), carbonate handling system (CHS) and isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS).

These integrated items will be installed in the A. E. Lalonde AMS Laboratory at the University of Ottawa.

PROCESS:
Suppliers that consider their equipment functional, successfully tested, readily available and fully compliant to the ACAN minimum requirements may submit, in writing, a statement of specifications to the contact person identified in this Notice, on or before the closing date of this Notice. In the statement of specifications, the supplier must unequivocally demonstrate how their equipment, at minimum, equals, or exceeds the stated requirements.

If no other supplier submits a statement of specifications, on or before the closing date of this Notice, the competitive requirements of the University of Ottawa will be considered having been met. Following notification to any suppliers not successful in unequivocally demonstrating that their statement of specifications equals or exceeds the requirements set out in this Notice, the contract may then be awarded to the pre-identified supplier.

Date of issue:      June 19, 2019
Closing Date:      July 22, 2019, at 3:00:00 P.M. Eastern Standard Time

INTENDED USE:
We are looking for a commercially available “off the shelf” AMS system… with fully integrated hardware/software…

These components will be installed in the A. E. Lalonde AMS Laboratory at the University of Ottawa; together they must be a complete system that is able to be operated through a unified, fully integrated electronic and software control package.

FUNCTIONALITY:
The equipment must conform to the following Minimum Requirements:

The system consists of a compact (200kV) 14C-specific Accelerator Mass Spectrometer with a hybrid gas/solid ion source and several fully-integrated, commercially available peripherals and their components.

The Accelerator Mass Spectrometer system must be commercially available (off the shelf) and have a demonstrated proven ability to produce high precision 14C measurements on ultra-small iron-graphite and gas samples. Specifically, the AMS must have a demonstrated ability to produce carbon ion beams of 0.1µA high-energy 12C+ per µgC on ultra-small 10-30µgC iron-graphite samples past the high-energy AMS magnet. It must also produce 14C count rates (>2000 events per µgC sample) for high precision 14C measurements (less than ±1-4%) on ultra-small modern iron-graphite samples (10-30 µgC).

The Accelerator Mass Spectrometer system must have a demonstrated ability to date iron-graphite samples back to over 52,000 years BP.

The Accelerator Mass Spectrometer system must have a track record of at least 10 successful commercial installations of its model type.

The Accelerator Mass Spectrometer system must have at least 40 peer-reviewed publications demonstrating this capability to run small samples (<100µgC) at high precision at more than one recognized academic institution.

The AMS and its peripheral components (GIS, EA, CHS, IRMS) need to be commercially available, fully integrated and work seamlessly as a unit.
i) One Mini Carbon Dating System (MICADAS) Accelerator Mass Spectrometer:
The instrument should be a very compact and precise radiocarbon AMS system. The AMS system should have the following features:
Approximate dimensions and weight: 3.4 m x 2.6 m x 2 m, 4500 kg
A random access sample changer with 40 positions and the ability of fast magazine changes (~5 min) without venting the ion source.
A low noise, non-degradable gas ionization detector with SiN entrance window and integrated pre-amplifier
A gas stripper unit for helium stripping (transmission of 46-47% for 14C), differentially pumped
A precision with a modern reference material: ±0.2% or better for 14C/12C and 13C/12C ratios (1 mgC iron-graphite sample).
Dating of samples back to 52’000 years BP (radiocarbon years), on iron-graphite samples.
Simple and fast tuning, high measurement stability over long time MICADAS allows the direct coupling of a gas interface (GIS, see below). This coupling must offer: fully automated measurements with an autosampler, an elemental analyzer or CO2-filled glass/quartz tubes.

ii) A commercially available IT package for accelerator control and lab management must feature:
A Web graphical user interface (GUI) featuring client access through a web browser from any device
The secure logging of users and events
A user chat function and built-in lab journal built into the instrument software (not by third party)
A scheduled wake-up/sleep task feature
User defined workflows
Automated maintenance tasks: shut down, restart features
A lab management package for tracing sample receiving, processing and 14C measurement information. This package should also integrate other peripherals, gas interface system and carbonate handling system.
Seamless integration between the accelerator control software and lab management package.
Label printer and bar-code reader for fast and efficient labeling of samples and logging of sample preparation steps

iii) A commercially available gas interface system (GIS):
We require a commercially available and fully integrated gas interface system for the introduction of CO2 gas into the hybrid ion source.
Automated sample cracker with a magazine for 8 samples
Demonstrated ability to measure CO2 on ultra-small samples of 3 to 100μg carbon samples from a sample cracker.
1 sorption trap transfer CO2 gas from several sources to syringe
Electric driven syringe for feeding AMS with CO2
Electronics unit for interface control
PC for interface and EA control
GIS Software
Standard and blank gas unit for the use with GIS for the measurement of gaseous standard and blank including:
1 l bottle, OX-2 CO2/He mixture
1 l bottle, Fossil CO2/He mixture
iv) A commercially available and fully-integrated elemental analyzer (EA):

The AMS system must include an elemental analyzer (EA) capable of both C and N stable isotopic measurements and seamless integration with the GIS, IRMS and AMS hardware and software.
v) A commercially available and fully-integrated carbonate handling system (CHS):

The CHS must be commercially available and combine a heater block for up to 64 samples, an adapted auto sampler, a water trap and an adjustable flow regulator. The system must be fully implemented in the GIS software. The CHS must come with a completely automated tool change between acid syringes and sampling needles.
Seamless integration with the GIS and AMS. Fully automated flushing/acid addition/sampling (including tool changes) with GIS
Heater block (20–100°C) for up to 64x Labco Exetainers® or 9x 100 ml serum bottles
Heated acid containers for phosphoric acid, leaching acid and oxidant (20/40 ml borosilicate vials)
Integrated flow regulator with LCD readout and flow-alarm
Integrated water trap with increased capacity for water samples
An optional water kit for dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) samples of up to 100 ml
Adjustable flow 0–300 ml/min
Adjustable temperature: room temperature to 100 °C
vi) A commercially available and fully-integrated isotope ratio mass spectrometer (IRMS):
The AMS system must include an IRMS capable of high precision d13C and d15N gas measurements.
IRMS must be seamlessly integrated with the EA, GIS and AMS hardware and software.
IRMS must have a mass range at 3 kV of 1–76 amu
Gas split for IRMS should be ~3% of sample flow, with remainder for GIS-AMS measurement.
IRMS must have a mass resolution > 110 m/Δm at 10 % valley separation
IRMS must have fully automated tuning

vii) Additional equipment and peripherals:
3x Ferrum Dispensers (FED), should have the following capability:
Must dispense 4–5 mg of iron powder with a variation of ±2 % for a 325 mesh size iron
Dosing of iron must take less than 6 seconds per tube
3x Pneumatic Sample Presses (PSP), should have the following capability:
Automated pressing by the push of a button
Adjustable force of 100–800 N for any carbon/catalyst ratio
Defined pressing time must be 1.5 seconds per sample
Pressing of graphite and other materials must be reproducible, reliable and fast for AMS cathodes
Sample iron-graphite must be pressed from the back, have low surface contamination and reproducible currents in the AMS measurement
Justification of Pre-Selected Supplier:
Supplier: Ionplus AG, Switzerland.

Justification:

In order to satisfy the specified mandate of measuring ultra-small compound specific 14C samples specified in the MicroSTARR proposal, the above criteria of the AMS system are justified. To the best of our knowledge, the MICADAS AMS system and its peripherals comprise the only commercially available “off the shelf” system with a demonstrated ability to meet or exceeds these criteria for the high-precision measurement of ultra-small iron-graphite and gas samples.

University Contact:

Ana Lopes
Approvisionneur principal, recherche | Senior Procurement Officer, Research
Strategic Project Management Group (SPMG) | Procurement Services
Université d'Ottawa | University of Ottawa
1 Nicholas (303)
Ottawa, ON K1N 7B7
alopes@uottawa.ca
613-562-5800 (2312)

Dates

Publication

2019/06/19 10:54:28 AM EDT

Bid Intent

Not Available

Questions are submitted online

Closing Date

2019/07/22 03:00:00 PM EDT

Contact Information

Ana Lopes

613-562-5800 ext. 2312

alopes@uottawa.ca

Buyer Preferences, Guidelines & Requirements

General Requirements

- Installation Required

- Insurance Required

- Warranty Information Required

Bid Submission Process

Bid Submission Type

Electronic Bid Submission

Pricing

No Pricing

Bid Documents List

Item Name	Description	Mandatory	Limited to 1 file
Attachment #1	Statement of Capabilities meeting all the minimum requirements	Yes	No
No entries

Additional Bidding Instructions

If challenging the ACAN you must provide a statment of capabilities in meeting all the minimum requirments.

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