The Department of Defense, United States Air Force (USAF), Air Force Research Laboratory Munitions Directorate , AFTC/PZIE, is currently conducting market research seeking capabilities statement from potential sources, including small businesses (SB), 8(a), HUBZone, Economically Disadvantaged Woman-Owned (EDWOSB), Woman-Owned (WOSB), Service Disabled Veteran Owned (SDVOSB) small business that are capable of providing Cycloidal Diffractive Waveplates (quantity 4 total). With the following requirements: • Clear aperture - 20mm (diameter for circular or edge size for square) • Liquid Crystal Compound - HBtx14 • Grating Pitch - 2.5 µm (or minimum pitch without degradation of efficiency) • Surface Flatness - ¼ wave @ 633nm • Control Voltage - 24V@1kHz • Liquid Crystal Cell Thickness - 1 each of § 6.25 µm § 6.75 µm § 8.0 µm § 8.5 µm • Substrate material -- >90% transmission in spectrum of 2.0µm - 5.0µm • Electrodes - compatible with spectrum of 2.0µm - 5.0µm All interested vendors should submit a response demonstrating their capability to deliver these items to the Primary Point of Contact listed below. Proposals are not being requested or accepted at this time. As stipulated in FAR 15.201(e), responses to this notice are not considered offers and cannot be accepted by the Government to form a binding contract. No solicitation (Request for Proposal) exists at this time; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. The decision to solicit for a contract shall be solely within the Government's discretion. The NAICS Code assigned to this acquisition is 333314, Optical Instrument and Lens Manufacturing, with a size standard of 500 persons. Respondents should indicate their size in relation to this size standard and indicate socio-economic status (i.e. SB, 8(a), HUBZone, EDWOSB, WOSB, or SDVOSB). Respondents are further requested to indicate their status as a Foreign-owned/Foreign-controlled firm and any contemplated use of foreign national employees on this effort. The Government reserves the right to consider a small business set-aside based upon responses hereto for any subsequent action. All prospective contractors must be registered in the System for Award Management (SAM) database to be awarded a DoD contract. No set-aside decision has been made. Note that a key factor in determining an acquisition to be a Small Business Set Aside is that small business prime contractors must perform at least 50% of the effort, as defined in FAR Clause 52.219-14. Any information submitted by respondents to this sources sought is voluntary. This sources sought notice is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government, nor will the Government reimburse any costs associated with the submission of information in response to this notice. Respondents will not be individually notified of the results of any government assessments. The Government's assessment of the capability statements received will factor into whether any forthcoming solicitation will be conducted as a full and open competition or as a set-aside for small business, or any particular small business program. CAPABILITIES STATEMENT: All interested vendors should submit a capabilities statement that explicitly demonstrates their capability to provide/perform the requirement stated in this notice. The capabilities statement should be brief and concise, yet clearly demonstrate an ability to meet the stated requirement. The response must not exceed 10 pages. Small businesses with only partial capabilities of this requirement are encouraged to submit their capabilities statement demonstrating the portion of the requirement they are capable of providing/performing. This information will allow the Government to identify areas of possible breakout or possible subcontracting opportunities. Responses may be submitted electronically to the following e-mail address:
[email protected] . All correspondence sent via email should contain a subject line that reads "Cycloidal Diffractive Waveplates " If this subject line is not included, the e-mail may not get through e-mail filters at Eglin AFB. Filters are designed to delete emails without a subject or with a suspicious subject or attachment. Attachments with files ending in .zip or .exe are not allowable and will be deleted. Ensure only .pdf, .doc, .docx, .xsls, or .xls documents are attached to your email. All other attachments may be deleted. All responsible sources may submit information that shall be considered by the agency. If late information is received, it may be considered, depending on agency time constraints. All routine communications regarding the announcement should be directed to the contractual point of contact listed in this posting. The Government may or may not use any responses to this sources sought as a basis for a subsequent project/requirement. Any project/requirement developed from the sources sought responses may be the subject of a subsequent acquisition; any such subsequent acquisition will be posted in FedBizOpps.gov separately. Responses to this sources sought will not be returned. The Government is under no obligation to acknowledge receipt of the information received, or provide feedback to the respondents with respect to any of the information submitted under this sources sought. No requests for a bid package or solicitation will be accepted; a bid package or solicitation does not exist at this time. In order to protect the integrity of any possible future acquisition, no additional information will be provided and no appointments for presentations will be made in reference to this sources sought. Only government employees will review submitted responses to this sources sought. Respondents are advised that employees of commercial firms under contract with the Government may be used to administratively process submissions and perform other administrative duties requiring access to other contractor's proprietary information. These administrative support contractors include nondisclosure agreements prohibiting their contractor employees from disclosing any information submitted by other contractors or using such information for any purpose other than that for which it was furnished. RESPONSES ARE DUE NO LATER THAN 3:00 P.M. (CST) ON 23 October 2017 . Direct all questions concerning this requirement to Mark Clapp at
[email protected] .