Denmark – Laboratory, optical and precision equipments (excl. glasses) – The supply of a SMARTLab SE multipurpose diffractometer

Description

UCPH needs to buy a high resolution, multipurpose X-ray powder diffractometer for atomic scale structural analysis of solid state materials. The instrument must be optimized for Bragg Brentano reflection geometry including in situ experiments under variable temperature and gas atmospheres with fast heating rates. The instrument should be equipped with a Cu X-ray tube and a detector with excellent energy discrimination.

Key facts

Procedure

neg-wo-call

Contact

maba@adm.ku.dk

Regime

publicSector

Contract references

043-2062/26-7000

Category

supplies

Awarded suppliers

• Ramcon A/S · 12044976 · DK013, DK

Supplier location as published: Birkerød, DK013, 3460, DK

Bid competition

Who else bid, as published on the notice. A bid is an offer, not money paid: nothing in this section is an award, and a firm named here was not necessarily paid anything.

Formal challenges lodged: 0

Ground given for limiting competition

The buyer’s own stated reason for awarding without open competition, as published. Their assertion, not a finding.

technical

Critical mandatory features to enable the extremely high analytical performance, ease of operation and multipurpose application to include: 1. The supplier must guarantee a minimum goniometer radius of 300 mm applicable for all types of measurements, optical components, and attachments with a goniometer measuring range of -10 to 160 (2Thea) or wider. 2. Automatic optics and sample stage recognition; automatic alignment function for all components of X-ray optics. Sample and optics alignments are very important and require an expert experience. Since alignment results are saved with each optical device and attachment, the aligned positions can be restored readily even when optics are changed, no matter the experience of the user. In addition, users are able to create measurement flows according to their own needs. Basic functions can be combined to create users’ own recipes for measurement or automatic maintenance. Component recognition function checks whether units are correctly changed by user. Plug and play functionality by fully automatic, real-time component recognition. That decreases measurement errors, leading to configuration and results being always correct. 3. Computer controlled incident, anti-scattering and receiving slits (Variable Incident Slit: auto-controlled 0.05 – 7.0 mm, 0.01 mm step, Length-limiting Slits: 2.0, 5.0, 10.0 mm) 4. The required detector must provide excellent XRF suppression, energy resolution of approximately 340 eV at CuKa (in reduced X-ray fluorescence mode), and enable filterless Kβ radiation suppression. Seamless switching between 0D, 1D and 2D measurements mode using a single detector platform. The detector shall have pixel size of 75 x 75 um pixel size. The detector must be fully integrated into the XRD system and software environment to enable seamless transition between measurement modes without additional hardware changes or software platforms. 5. Attachment platform able to automatically adjust vertical (Z) position of sample in all configurations of diffractometer with height adjustment of 10 mm or wider 6. The contracting authority requires a fully integrated reactor-based sample environment that enables in-situ diffraction measurements under controlled reactive atmospheres without the need for third-party modification, bespoke integration work, or additional validation activities. The required system must provide temperature operation from RT to around 1000°C, rapid heating rate up to 300 degrees per minute, and rapid cooling from 1000°C to 100°C within approximately 6 minutes. The holder must have ability measure in inert (N2, He) and reactive (CO2, CO, H2 etc) gasses. The sample holder must be made of low reactive material, e.g. black quartz glass, to ensure the sample does not react with catalyst sample types. These capabilities are necessary to support the study of kinetic phase transformations and metastable material states. The ReactorX sample environment and XSPA-400 ER detector collectively meet these mandatory requirements. The XSPA-400 ER detector provides high-energy-resolution detection, seamless pixel-array technology and the sensitivity required for weak diffraction measurements in complex materials systems. The ReactorX attachment provides the required high-temperature and reactive-atmosphere measurement capabilities within the same validated instrumentation platform. The SmartLab SE platform is required as the host instrument for implementation of the ReactorX sample environment and XSPA-400 ER detector. The procurement requirement is therefore driven by the need for this integrated analytical solution rather than by the diffractometer platform in isolation. SmartLab SE provides automated alignment, component recognition and integrated control of the required accessories, enabling operation as a single validated measurement platform and reducing technical, operational and validation risks associated with multi-vendor integration. The contracting authority has assed the market and determined that no other commercially available solution is capable of meeting all the mandatory requirements simultaneously within a single manufacturer-supported and validated platform.