Request For Quote - DART-Mass Spectrometer

Request for Quote (RFQ) – 192126VHQFDL00016 DART-Mass Spectrometer

1. Point of Contact: Chris Jackson, 8222 N. Belt Line Road, Irving, Texas 75063

Questions:   All questins shall be submitted no later than 1:00 pm, Eastern Time, Thursday, September 17, 2026.

Email quotes to: Christopher.L.Jackson@ice.dhs.gov by 0800, Eastern, September 23, 2026.

Basis for Award: 

The Government intends to evaluate quotes in response to this RFQ using the Lowest Price Technically Acceptable (LPTA) process. Quotes shall be evaluated in order of total price (lowest price first) until a technically acceptable quote is determined. Quotes will be evaluated for acceptability only. A quote shall be determined to be technically acceptable or unacceptable based on the rating definitions in the table below. The technically acceptable quote will then have its price evaluated for reasonableness. All quotes may not be evaluated at the Government’s discretion.

Rating Definitions:

Acceptable

The quotation meets and/or exceed the minimim specifications as listed below.

Unacceptable

The quotation does not meet the minimum specifications as listed below. .

2.  Set Aside: None

3.  NAICS: 334516  PSC: 6640

4.  Description:

The Government would like to purchase a Direct Analysis in Real-Time Mass Spectrometer (DART-MS) that will fulfill the HSI Forensics Laboratory mission to perform rapid, non-destructive mass spectral analyses of inks, toners, dyes, polymers, papers, adhesives, and other materials related to travel, identity, and security documents.

The DART source must be capable of rapid qualitative and quantitative analysis with no sample preparation of a wide range of polar and nonpolar materials including polymers and polymer additives, fuel additives, drugs and metabolites (either purified or in body fluids or tissues), explosives, foods and beverages, environmental contaminants, pesticides, and chemical warfare agents. The DART system must be controlled through the software provided. The DART must be a fully integrated (with the MS and software) and be a commercially available instrument that has previously been sold and installed into US Federal and State government laboratories, industrial and pharmaceutical companies, as well as universities and colleges

The DART-MS equipment must meet the following minimum requirements listed below: 

-TAA compliant

- Must include DART JumpShot: DART JumpShot with Pulse gas flow is an easy way to complete ambient pressure desorption ionization mass spectrometry.  JumpShot technology improves speed and throughput, reduces ambient background and allows for 95% helium saving over continuous flow DART.

All hardware required for operation of the DART-MS instrument – PC (and related peripherals that meets or exceeds the following specifications:

• Intel Core i5-13600 with Windows 11™ Pro or Mac OSX 64-bit Operating System,
• Minimum of 16GB RAM, 256GB SSD & 4TB SATA disk drives,
• 24" flat panel monitor
• optical mouse, keyboard, and all necessary cables

Includes accessory pumps, gas regulator(s), etc. 

The Mass spectrometer must meet or exceed the following specifications:

• Time-of-flight mass spectrometer including ESI ion source, DART ion source, isolation valve, ion transmission guide, ion accelerator, analyzer, ion detection unit, ADC system, evacuation and control system.
• Syringe pump for system tuning.
• Positive and Negative ion detection
• No special interface or pump required for using DART
• Resolving Power: greater than or equal to 10,000 (FWHM) at m/z 609
• Data Acquisition Rate: up to 50Hz
• Mass Range of at least: m/z 7-10,000
• Mass Accuracy: 3ppm (RMS) or better
• Supports up to multiple in-source CID voltages for a single analysis
• Vacuum isolation valve permits rapid pump down after venting the ion source region for maintenance
• Must be capable of using Helium and Nitrogen gas as a carrier gas
• High-Resolution, capable of exact mass and true isotopic pattern measurements
• Data from analyses can be matched against database spectra measured from other models of DART-MS, including but not limited to the NIST DART Forensic Database, and the US Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory wood database.
• Atmospheric pressure interface is user serviceable.
•  Is a non-contact source that does not require that the sample be prepared in solvent or reside in a vacuum. The DART source can analyze vapors, solids, and liquid sample types
• MS is fully integrated with the direct analysis in real time (DART) source.
• A single software controls both the DART sample introduction and MS detector.
• The DART source does not use radiation and does not expose the sample to high voltages
• Capable of detecting masses as low as 7Li+ and atmospheric ions from m/z 15 and higher.
• Meets or exceeds spectral storage rate of at least 40 spectra per second at a resolving power in excess of 10,000 (FWHM definition).
• Can be shutdown and restarted routinely without detrimental effects to the instrument performance. 
• can measure molecular ions, even for difficult nonpolar compounds such as saturated alkanes.
• Supports the use of optional ion sources such as atmospheric pressure ionization (APCI), nanoelectrospray (nanoESI), CoronaSpray, PaperSpray® and DualSpray.
• Data interpretation and reporting software is provided that includes:
  •  elemental composition determination functions
  • integrated searching of NIST-formatted mass spectral databases and on-line chemical databases for compounds with elemental compositions matching those calculated by the software.
  • chemometric analysis should include principal component analysis (PCA) and kernel PCA, linear and kernel discriminant analysis (LDA and KDA), partial least squares (PLS), support vector machine (SVM), Fisher ratio analysis and heat maps. Heat maps can be exported to third-party software for hierarchical cluster analysis.
  • Kendrick mass defect analysis including nontraditional and 3D Kendrick mass defect plots
  • target compound identification and report generation
  • support for creation of custom mass spectral databases/libraries
  • modeling of overlapping isotopic distributions at any arbitrary resolving power
  • Ion series analysis
  • database searching including correlation and matching of mass spectra acquired with different collision energies with post-search exact-mass and elemental composition filters.
  • The software is linked to databases such as NIST and Wiley mass spectral databases.
  • fully off-line.  Does not require internet/web connectivity for use of any function – database searching, data collection, analysis, or interpretation. 
  • can determine unique elemental compositions for unknown compounds by using isotopic exact masses and abundances. Provides information to support assignments for known or suspected compounds. The software to perform this assignment is provided.