REQUEST FOR INFORMATION - NEW DESIGN BOOKLET DIE CUTTING INSERT ASSEMBLY

THIS IS A REQUEST FOR INFORMATION (RFI) NOTICE ONLY. This is a Request for Information (RFI). This is NOT a solicitation for proposals, proposal abstracts, request for bids or quotations, nor, a promise to award from this RFI. The purpose of this RFI is to conduct market research and obtain detailed information and capabilities statements from qualified sources. Interested parties of any size may submit a response to this notice. Respondents are advised that the U.S. Government will not pay for any information or administrative costs incurred in response to this Notice. All costs associated with responding to this Notice are solely at the responding parties' expense. Respondents are solely responsible for properly marking and clearly identifying any trade secrets and commercial or financial information that is privileged or confidential contained within their response. The U.S. Government will neither be liable for, nor suffer any consequential damages resulting from any commercial or financial information that is privileged or confidential, not properly marked and clearly identified. Information received in response to this RFI will be safeguarded and handled in accordance with applicable statutes, including the Freedom of Information Act and the Materials Management Acquisition Regulation (MMAR) policy. Respondents may execute a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA) with the U.S. Government Publishing Office (GPO) (see attached). GPO is preparing for deployment of a new booklet incorporating the inclusion of a single polycarbonate (PC) page into traditional paper pages. The number of pages is between twelve (12) and fifty (50). Cutting/Trimming through this PC layer at the manufacturing rate and quality level required is extremely challenging. Although traditional steel die assemblies have successfully cut/trimmed test material, die wear at a significantly higher rate, resulting in increased die changeover time and frequency. This increase will significantly impact the throughput required to support rollout of GPO’s new booklet. A new single booklet die cut assembly insert concept, compatible with current machine design, is required. Please see attached documents for more information and instructions on how to respond to this RFI.