The air purifier market urgently needs industry alliances to lead the way

Air purifier products, as a kind of household appliances specially designed to improve and solve indoor air pollution problems, have attracted more and more attention from consumers. Civil air purifiers are products transformed from industrial air purification equipment to consumer consumer products. Since there is no unified certification standard performance for such products at present, and they cannot be intuitively perceived, the development of the air purifier industry has been slow. However, some experts predict that my country's air purifier market capacity will grow at an annual rate of 30% in the future. Under the strong market demand, there are many companies participating in my country's civil air purifier industry, including many well-known brands at home and abroad, such as Philips, Panasonic, 3M, Daikin, Electrolux, Midea, Yuanda, etc.

As various manufacturers compete to enter this field, various purifiers with magical functions are also continuously launched. Wu Gan, secretary-general of Tianjin Household Electrical Appliances Association, believes that in the air purifier product market, various health concepts such as "deformaldehyde removal and sterilization" promoted by merchants are mostly hyped by merchants, and their actual effects are difficult to measure. Some experts believe that the filter on the air purifier is quite limited. After the adsorption is saturated, the purifier may become a source of pollution.

In the face of the chaos in the industry, an expert who did not want to be named pointed out that the main reasons for the serious disorderly competition are: First, the standard system is not perfect, the standard technology level is limited, and there is no enforceable unified standard. At present, there are three current domestic standards for the performance of air purifiers, which are the mandatory national standards for antibacterial and sterilization performance, the recommended national standards for product performance, and the recommended light industry standards for product purification performance. Many of the three standards have the same performance indicators, but the test methods and technical requirements are quite different and contradict each other. The outstanding problems focus on the evaluation of the purification performance of various pollutants. In addition, there are obvious scientific and operability defects in these standards, and the technical level is not high. Directly carrying out air purifier product testing for third-party testing and evaluation agencies brings difficulties in direction and operability, making it difficult for companies that are standardized in the industry to uniformly implement standards. At the same time, the standards involved in the main performance are recommended, and most manufacturers choose to protect their own standards at the expense of consumers' interests. Second, there is a lack of evaluation methods for important indicators, making it difficult for consumers to choose. Applicable area is the first question consumers should ask when purchasing air purifier products, but there is no such definition and unified evaluation method in domestic standards, which leads to various enterprises to arbitrarily stipulate calculation and evaluation methods to meet the actual needs of consumers. Even the weighing methods are varied, including applicable area, applicable volume, and usable area. In this case, consumers cannot choose the right product correctly. Third, the phenomenon of exaggerated propaganda is common, and the self-discipline of enterprises is poor. The pros and cons of the purification performance of civil air purifier products need to be evaluated by professional testing instruments according to certain test methods, resulting in the purification ability of air purifier products. Consumers can only passively trust the propaganda and provision of merchants when purchasing test report. Based on the domestic standards are recommended standards, and some irresponsible testing agencies in the industry have issued unreasonable test reports and data, similar to the "1 cubic" test chamber, arbitrarily extended test time for performance testing, purification efficiency 99.9% , 99.99%, etc., misleading consumers.

What's more serious is that the current product certification is frequent, and enterprises are at a loss. In 2012, my country's air purifier product certification has also been introduced. The expert, who did not want to be named, pointed out that the technical requirements of these certifications are uneven, and some certification requirements are only the same as those in the national mandatory standards. Complete disregard for advancement. Although these are all voluntary certifications, enterprises are suddenly faced with certifications of different systems, and they are at a loss under unknown circumstances.

In order to reverse the current chaotic status quo of the air purifier industry, solve the problems existing in the industry, and promote the healthy and orderly development of the industry, it is urgent for the industry to reach a consensus. In this regard, Shen Hao, executive deputy director of the Air Purification Equipment Professional Committee of the Shanghai Environmental Protection Industry Association and Secretary General of the Air Purifier Industry Alliance, believes that the industry alliance may be a way out for the air purifier industry in the current chaotic environment.

To this end, with the support of the Air Purification Equipment Professional Committee of the Shanghai Environmental Protection Industry Association, representatives from Philips, 3M, Daikin, Midea, Panasonic, Sharp, Yixin, Greenwell, Yuanda, Dingxin and other companies Nearly 30 companies in the industry, domestic testing institutions such as China Shanghai Testing, Shanghai Environmental Protection Product Quality Supervision and Inspection Station, National Environmental Protection Product Standardization Technical Committee Air (Treatment) Purification Product Working Group, Shanghai Institute of Standardization and other standardization organizations and institutions , Tongji University, Shanghai University and other scientific research institutions jointly organized and established the Air Purifier Industry Alliance.

It is understood that the alliance responds to the standardization development ideas of the Shanghai Municipal Bureau of Quality Supervision to guide and promote the standard work of the alliance, in line with the principle of perfecting national standards and providing intuitive performance indicators, to meet consumers' demands for independent purchases, and strictly improve " The mechanism of unified standards, unified testing, and unified identification" starts from the research and development, production, sales and use of air purifiers to promote orderly competition and sustainable development of the industry.