Notice End Date: March 24, 2025

Vendor Name: Anton Paar Modular Compact Rheometer

Contract Amount: $80,714.25

Agency Procurement Manager: SC Young

Agency Procurement Manager Email: scy@clemson.edu

Agency Procurement Manager Telephone#: 864-656-2830

The Agency hereby provides notice that it intends to enter into a sole source contract per S.C. Code Ann. §11-35-1560 with Vendor for the following supplies, services, information technology, or construction:

Clemson University's Department of Materials Science & Engineering is building up a new
teaching lab in AMIC, which includes state-of-the-art characterization techniques of rheology
properties of polymer, ceramic paste and glass at well-controlled temperatures, which needs to
close to 600 °C for sample glass samples. It is a versatile requirement to try its best to cover as
many kinds of materials as possible under variable conditions with a wide range of rheological
properties to be measured because the equipment is mainly served for teaching purposes. We want
our students to be fully trained in the principles and techniques of rheology characterization.
Specially, we want the equipment to have the following characteristics:
1) We want to handle small samples since our laboratory-scale sample sizes are very small.
For example, we may prepare Sg of ceramic for 3D printing, which allows us to sacrifice
the small sample amount (the smaller the better) for rheological properties measurement.
2) The rheology measurement is very temperature-dependent, and our measurement is
extremely sensitive to temperature variation. Therefore, we want to have a system with
temperature accuracy that is as high as possible.
3) We want to handle glass samples and hope measurements can be done close to 600 oC.
4) We also want to handle some solutions or biomaterials that must be operated at
temperatures lower than -100 oC.
The MCR rheometer is equipped with a high-temperature furnace, which can be as high as
600 oC, which cannot be achieved by other equipment from other vendors.
MCR rheometer can, according to low temperatures, be as low as -160 oC.
In addition, the temperature control accuracy for the MCR rheometer can go down to 0.01
degrees, which meets our requirements very well. For these reasons, this is a sole source procurement.

Agency's justification for a sole source procurement may be viewed or immediately obtained at: Agency Procurement Manager (Listed Above)

PROTESTS:
Any actual or prospective bidder, offeror, contractor, or subcontractor aggrieved in connection with the intended award or award of this sole source contract, shall notify the appropriate chief Procurement officer in writing of its intent to protest within five (5) business days of the date this notice is posted. Any actual or prospective bidder, offeror, contractor, or subcontractor who is aggrieved in connection with the intended award or award of this sole source contract and has timely notified the appropriate chief procurement officer of its intent to protest, may protest to the appropriate chief procurement officer in the manner set forth below within fifteen days of the date this notice is posted; except that a matter that could have been raised as a protest of the solicitation may not be raised as a protest of the award or intended award of a contract.
A protest must be in writing, filed with the appropriate chief procurement officer, and set forth the grounds of the protest and the relief requested with enough particularity to give notice of the issues to be decided. The protest must be received by the appropriate chief procurement officer within the time provided above. Days are calculated as provided in S.C. Code Ann. § 11-35-310(13).

Any Notice Of Intent To Protest And Protest Must Be Addressed To: Materials Management Officer