Health & Beauty

The implementation of the new standard for air purifiers can promote healthy competition in the industry, provide consumers with higher quality products, and build a healthy and comfortable indoor living environment.

The recent frequent sandstorms have sparked heated discussions, and air purifiers have attracted consumer attention. At present, it is the time point for the new national standard of air purifiers: the national standard "GB/T18801-2022 Air Purifiers" was released on October 12, 2022 and implemented on May 1, 2023. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

What changes are worth paying attention to when the new national standard replaces the old 2015 standard for air purifiers that has been in operation for many years? What are the key points that consumers should pay attention to when choosing air purifiers under the new national standard? How can production enterprises adapt to new standards and launch new products?

The New Wind Direction of the Industry

Air purifier refers to a product that can adsorb, decompose, or convert various air pollutants, effectively improving indoor air cleanliness. Indoor environmental pollutants and pollution sources mainly include radioactive gases, molds, viruses, particulate matter, decoration residues, second-hand smoke, etc. The functions of air purifiers such as sterilization, dust reduction, haze removal, and odor removal have made more and more consumers who value respiratory health willing to pay for them.

According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, about 70% of the global market's air purifiers are produced in China, and there are currently over 200000 enterprises related to air purification in China.

The update of air purifier standards is closely related to the transformation of consumer demand. In recent years, consumer demand has no longer solely focused on haze purification, but also hopes to remove gaseous pollutants such as formaldehyde and toluene, as well as microbial pollutants such as bacteria and viruses, improving air quality and living standards has become a new trend in the air purification industry. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

The revision of air purifier standards is to adapt to changes in consumer demand and the upgrading of new product functions, "said Zhao Shuang, Deputy Director of the Standards Research Department of the China Home Appliances Research Institute. With the improvement of China's atmospheric environment quality, consumers' focus on indoor purification has shifted from particulate pollutants in the past to other pollutants in indoor air. With the empowerment of intelligent technology and new purification technologies, the product functions of air purifiers are also showing a diversified and personalized development trend, and some testing methods for new functions need to be improved. This series of changes has promoted the timely revision of air purifier standards.

The revision and implementation of the new national standard have injected new requirements and norms into the current market, effectively interpreting the concept of standard service products and adapting standards to the market. We believe that under the framework of the new national standard, the entire air purification market will become more standardized, and consumers will also buy better products, enabling the entire industry to achieve sustainable development. "said Chen Laixing, Director of Air Purifier Research and Development at Laike Electric Co., Ltd.

For enterprises, standards are the basis and foundation for designing and producing products. If a product does not have corresponding normative standards, it is irresponsible for both the enterprise and the general public. "Liu Ning, the filter element development product manager of Beijing Zhimi Technology Co., Ltd., introduced that in recent years, purifier manufacturing enterprises have designed and developed numerous new products that meet the needs of the public, including filtration, electrostatic, catalytic, plasma, adsorption Ozone, composite, and other air purifiers with different working principles have been launched into the market. In this situation, the 2015 edition of the national standard for air purifiers can no longer fully meet existing needs and needs to be revised to play a standardized, guiding, and exemplary role.

As a functional product, air purifiers have always been a key spot check product of the State Administration for Market Regulation. In the past two years, the failure rate of air purifier products in the circulation field has been high, indicating that the overall safety and performance level of the product still needs to be improved. "said Li Yi, director of the Health Home Appliance Testing Center of Zhongjiayuan (Beijing) Testing and Certification Co., Ltd, The international IEC 63086 air purifier performance series standard being formulated also refers to many test methods in the new national standard, which is enough to prove the progressiveness of the new national standard in the world.

Enhance the leading role of standards

What are the main highlights of standard revision? What does it mean for consumers?

The new national standard adheres to the concept of putting consumers at the center and continuously enhances the leading role of the standard. It solves consumers' doubts through scientific evaluation methods, and enables consumers to buy good products that are both useful and reliable through the improvement of technical requirements. "Zhao Shuang said.

From a consumer perspective, the new national standard has four highlights worth paying attention to.

One is to attach importance to the long-term performance indicators of products, to avoid consumers being misled by products with high initial performance indicators but relatively low lifespan. The new national standard associates the CADR value of clean air for particulate matter and gaseous pollutants (formaldehyde) with the cumulative purification CCM value, establishing the corresponding relationship between product optimization design and filter material. CADR reflects initial performance, and CCM reflects durability. The concept of CADR and CCM related indicators for purification capacity has been introduced into national standards for the first time, making it easier for consumers to identify when making choices, "said Chen Laixing.

The second is to improve the testing methods related to the removal of gaseous pollutants. The new national standard considers the real usage environment of air purifiers and proposes a mixed loading experimental method for gaseous pollutants and a dynamic equilibrium experimental method, solving the problem of excessive directionality in removing pollutants in the original standard.

The third is to propose an evaluation method for the virus removal ability of purifiers in response to social concerns. Consumers are particularly concerned about whether air purifiers can remove viruses and whether secondary pollution may occur during use. Based on a large amount of experimental verification data, the new national standard has added a method for evaluating the performance of purifiers in virus removal.

The fourth is to focus on the segmented market of purifier products and propose a qualitative method of "artificial olfactory identification" to evaluate "odor concentration". China has a large consumer group, and there is a significant demand for differentiated purifier products. The removal of odors and secondary odors caused during use has become a performance indicator of concern for some consumers. However, due to the complexity and diversity of odor components, and the varying perception abilities of different populations, it is difficult to establish a corresponding relationship between instrument measurement data and consumer senses. Therefore, the new national standard adopts the qualitative evaluation method of "artificial olfactory identification" to evaluate the secondary odor generated by air purifiers and their ability to remove odors.

Liu Ning introduced that the new national standard has also added many specifications that are more in line with the needs of the people, such as standardizing the silent mode of products to ensure sleep quality; The standby power has been re regulated, and high-energy consuming products will not meet the standards; Multiple testing methods have been added, including allergen removal performance, automatic mode purification performance, and wearable purifier performance.

How to adapt to the new national standard

How do air purifier manufacturing enterprises adapt to the new national standards?

With the release and implementation of the new national standard, the air purifier industry will enter a stage of high-quality development. Zhao Shuang believes that enterprises should have a deep understanding of the new national standard, update their internal control standards in a timely manner according to the requirements of the new national standard, and complete the entire process of product design, production, testing, and standard replacement as soon as possible. At the same time, accelerate the digestion of inventory products and products that have entered the market, ensuring that products produced and sold after the transition period comply with the new national standards. To gain insight into the feelings and needs of consumers, focus on segmented markets, and use the testing and evaluation methods recommended in the new national standard to achieve a transformation from meeting market demand to guiding market demand, Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

Xiaomi's air purifiers have been the top seller in China for 6 consecutive years, relying on advanced technology and rigorous quality awareness. Xiaomi's existing products on sale meet the requirements of the new national standard. "Liu Ning said, as a member of China's air purifier manufacturing industry, Xiaomi actively participates in the formulation and revision of the new national standard, and jointly improves the standards; The purifier design team is also based on the new national standard and has fully verified and investigated the products. Products that do not meet the standard requirements will be updated or removed in a timely manner. Products under development should be designed based on meeting or exceeding the new national standard. Currently, the market praise rate of the new products after release is close to 100%.

Laike is a staunch supporter, follower, and beneficiary of the new national standard, "Chen Laixing said. During the revision of the new national standard, Laike actively participated in various exploratory tests organized by the Home Appliance Institute, identified its own shortcomings and improved them. At the same time, it also provided strong data support for the setting of various indicators in the new national standard; After the preliminary finalization of the new national standard, organize internal product layout testing according to the requirements of the new national standard to ensure that the test results sent to third parties are within an acceptable range; During the buffer period after the implementation of the new national standard, relevant listed products will be sent to third-party institutions for testing of the new national standard project to ensure that the newly produced products meet the relevant requirements of the new national standard. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

Chen Laixing told reporters that Laike has already launched two air purifier products designed and manufactured according to the new national standard, with sales steadily increasing. In the past two years, the sales of the air purifier market have been continuously declining due to the impact of the overall environment, which is due to various reasons. However, with the implementation of the new national standard, the market will become more standardized, and I believe that the consumer market for air purifiers will gradually recover accordingly