TITLE – SCIENTIFIC FREEZER

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking small businesses with the ability to provide an Automated -80°C Ultra-Low Temperature (ULT) Freezer System for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The system should have a usable storage capacity to store at least 3.5 million FluidX 1.0 mL 2D-barcoded screw-cap tubes and support automated storage and retrieval of 2D barcoded vials/tubes in SBS format. The system should also have dual-redundant refrigeration, emergency backup cooling, and independent environmental controls. The vendor should provide comprehensive on-site training to operators and a capability statement that includes the name and address of the vendor, size and type of business, point of contact, and professional qualifications of experts and technical personnel. Some key features of the system include: • Environmental performance: maintain storage bank air temperature at -80°C ± 3°C • Temperature stability: ± 1.5°C from set temperature within the storage bank • Temperature homogeneity: < 3°C across the storage compartment • Cold chain protection for Input/Output (I/O) and exceptions: provide an internal -80°C buffer capability • Input/Output (I/O) temperature: I/O area temperature shall be -20°C or lower • Humidity/frost prevention: provide active humidity control designed to prevent frost accumulation • Automated identification and validation: provide automated imaging/identification functions for reading tray barcodes, rack barcodes, 2D codes on tube bases, and 1D/2D codes on tube sides • Picking throughput: sample picking rate/speed shall be optimized for highest practical rate and support automated picking between SBS and other density formats