Scope
Description
Supply, Delivery, Installation & On-Site Maintenance of Digitisation Scanning Equipment for the UK Hydrographic Office.
The objective of this tender is to procure brand-new digitisation equipment and accompanying
software (with licence) to support the high-quality, digital capture of a wide range of archival and
heritage materials of varying size, thickness and weight.
We require a large format floor mounted image scanner (up to A0 size) with a mobile scanning bed.
Among other features, it must be capable of manual access, integrated quality control, resolution
1200PPI optical or above and integrated software with the ability to read printed text & handwriting.
The equipment required includes:
• Overhead planetary scanner for fragile, rare, or bound documents like books and maps with a stand mounted camera system to capture images without any contact with the document.
• The ability for the scanner to scan oversized documents, such as folios, plans, surveys, maps, atlases, books, illustrations, paintings, sketches and charts.
• It should have the flexibility to allow for scanning of historic books that are unable to be fully opened due to their spine integrity and delicate condition.
The following are mandatory requirements of the specification, if tenderers are unable to meet these requirements their tender may automatically be rejected. Responses to the below will be requested in the questionnaire contained with the Tender.
System Depth of Field - should comply with FADGI guidelines, making it perfect for scanning thick books and folded materials.
Cradle/Stage/Platform requirements:
• Fully adjustable bed frame with manual/foot pedal control
• Book cradle table for originals up to 645 mm x 860 mm (>A0) and self-aligning and height-adjustable (motorised) able to accommodate books up to 50 cm thick and weighing up to 180Kgs
• Glass plate able to be folded up 90° and remains securely locked in place or similar
• Scanning with and without glass plate
• Anti-reflective special / and safety glass
• Image Quality - Resolution from 300 PPI - 1,200 PPI (optically). Scans need to have even illumination at the image corners to FADGI standard. Scanner requires controlled lighting within book curves to prevent loss of image details
• Conservation lighting - Modern, LED lighting concept (UV / IR and ozone free). Glare and flicker-free lighting during capturing (no flash effects). Colour temperature from 5,500 to 6,500 Kelvin. Adjustable light intensity from 1,000 to 3,500 lux.
Scanning Outputs
• Internal colour depth: 48-bit colour.
• 24/48-bit colour, 8/16 bit grey and 1 bit B/W.
• Colour ranges: sRGB, Adobe 1998 RGB, eciRGB V2, ProPhoto or according to ICC standard
• File formats: Archival TIFF/RAW, JPEG, JPEG 2000, PDF, PDF-A, PDF OCR (searchable content), Multipage TIFF and PDF, DNG, WORD or eBooks.
• System Data Transfer rate - Use of USB 3.0 and USB 3.1 connectivity with data transfer rate of 5GB per second.
Total value (estimated)
- £80,000 excluding VAT
- £96,000 including VAT
Below the relevant threshold
Contract dates (estimated)
- 12 January 2026 to 11 January 2030
- 4 years
Main procurement category
Goods
CPV classifications
- 38520000 - Scanners
Contract locations
- UKK - South West (England)
Engagement
Engagement deadline
1 December 2025
Engagement process description
Please message Procurement@ukho.gov.uk if you feel you can provide this requirement.
Participation
Particular suitability
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME)
Submission
Publication date of tender notice (estimated)
3 December 2025
Contracting authority
UK Hydrographic Office
- Public Procurement Organisation Number: PZZG-9616-WGXT
Admiralty Way
Taunton
TA1 2DN
United Kingdom
Contact name: James Bishop
Email: procurement@ukho.gov.uk
Region: UKK23 - Somerset
Organisation type: Public authority - central government