GB-Sheffield: Band Saw (to be used in oral and maxillofacial pathology

The Unit of Oral and Maxillofacial Pathology requires a band saw to prepare thin sections of teeth and slices of bone.

Ground sections of calcified teeth are required for the diagnosis of certain pathological conditions.

The sections must be reproducibly thin and of high quality.

Pathological bone often needs decalcifying prior to thin sectioning. This process can be accelerated by taking slices of the bone on the band saw and decalcifying the slices rather than the whole specimen. This reduces turn-around time in the diagnosis of bone pathology.

In order to facilitate this work, the band saw must:

• have interchangeable clamping systems for different sizes of specimen.
• have the ability to cut through very hard materials (eg. tungsten implants) as well as through soft tissues.
• be capable of cutting small specimens (eg. paediatric teeth) down to a thickness of 150 microns.
• allow setting of section thickness with micrometer accuracy.
• produce slices or thin sections of combined hard and soft tissues in which the microscopic relationship of all tissues is maintained.
• have a pivoting clamp system which minimises the area of contact between specimen and blade at any one moment thus keeping specimen damage to an absolute minimum.

Additional information: The contracting authority considers that this contract may be suitable for economic operators that are small or medium enterprises (SMEs). However, any selection of tenderers will be based solely on the criteria set out for the procurement.