BEIS Raman Module System Mini Competition

***** THIS IS AN AWARD NOTICE, NOT A CALL FOR COMPETITION *****

This procurement is being concluded following a mini competition under the Low Value Equipment DPS RE20505 Category 7

Brief Description of Requirement

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) is responsible for building national capacity for product safety to ultimately protect consumers from unsafe products and support compliant businesses. In addition to construction products, OPSS regulates a wide range of non-food and non-medicinal consumer products, all of which are listed here. The Teddington site houses OPSS testing facilities and is currently undergoing enhancement and development in a bid to strengthen national capability, support the enforcement of product safety and construction product casework and the investigation of new and emerging product risks. Chemical analysis is an important area for product testing, helping to determine the suitability and safety of materials and products for their intended applications. OPSS has recently procured analytical instrumentation including Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR), Ultra High Performance-Liquid Chromatography (UHPLC) and Gas Chromatography - Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS).

With OPSS becoming the regulator in construction products, the team's testing remit has greatly increased and there is a new focus on understanding the characteristics and performance of raw materials utilised in construction products. Raman Spectroscopy is identified as a suitable analytical technique, which would complement OPSS current testing capability in material characterisation in the Analytical Laboratory and provide additional insight particularly for construction products. The chemical mapping from Raman will provide a more in-depth chemical analysis of a material's structure and microscopic location of particles, which the FTIR is currently limited in what it can offer