Kruss Scientific Instruments, Inc.

Kruss Scientific Instruments, Inc. (doing business as Kruss USA), a foreign-owned, for-profit manufacturer headquartered in Matthews, North Carolina, supplies precision surface chemistry laboratory instruments to federal agencies as a prime contractor (98% of recent awards) under full-and-open competition, with no material small business set-aside footprint despite occasional Total Small Business designations on individual purchase orders.

Kruss USA manufactures and sells analytical laboratory instruments — tensiometers, foam analyzers, drop shape analyzers, and related surface chemistry measurement equipment — to research and testing facilities across the Navy, Army, Department of Agriculture, and Food and Drug Administration. Representative work includes a $53.9 thousand BP100 bubble pressure tensiometer procurement from USDA Agricultural Research Service (awarded June 2022), a $49.9 thousand dynamic foam analyzer from the Office of Naval Research (April 2022), a $37.7 thousand optical tensiometer from ONR (May 2024), a $27.9 thousand fully automated foam analyzing laboratory system (complete with software, desktop PC, on-site installation, and training) from Naval Sea Systems Command (June 2025, Total Small Business set-aside), and a $37 thousand tensiometer from Department of Homeland Security Customs and Border Protection (September 2025). The company also performs on-site preventative maintenance and calibration services, as on a $4.2 thousand maintenance contract from Naval Supply Systems Command awarded in March 2026.

Customer concentration is diffuse across research and development agencies. The top five customers by award count account for 38% of recent awards, split among the Office of Naval Research (5 awards, $181 thousand), USDA Agricultural Research Service Midwest Area (4 awards, $113 thousand), Naval Sea Systems Command (4 awards, $77 thousand), Army Materiel Command RDECOM (4 awards, $135 thousand), and FDA (3 awards, $202 thousand). By dollar value, FDA leads the top five with $202 thousand across three awards, followed by ONR at $181 thousand, while the Army accounts for $135 thousand — no single customer dominates. All work flows through direct purchase orders; Kruss USA holds one seat on the OASIS+ GWAC but has placed only a single task order under that vehicle. Subcontract exposure is minimal: one sub award with Battelle Memorial Institute for a drop shape analyzer and software as part of an Air Force civil engineering and fire services R&D project (June 2024).

Awards per year have declined materially — four in 2022, one in 2023, four in 2024, two in 2025, and one in 2026 — with only one award (valued at $4 thousand) reaching completion within the next twenty-four months and therefore facing recompete. The vendor's federal revenue base sits at approximately $1.5 to $1.8 million in recent years. NAICS concentration aligns tightly with the product portfolio: 33 awards under Analytical Laboratory Instrument Manufacturing (334516), with secondary exposure under Optical Instrument and Lens Manufacturing and instrument wholesaling. The company has maintained federal contracting relationships since at least 1997 and has served 25 distinct agencies over the source period, though activity has compressed significantly in recent years.

LABORATORY INSTRUMENTS FOR MEASURING SURFACE TENSION, INTERFACIAL TENSION AND CONTACT ANGLE.