Air curtain cabinet (also known as air curtain display cabinet or air curtain refrigerator) as an important part of commercial cold chain equipment, in recent years with the rapid development of retail and catering industry, they are widely used in the Chinese market.
The following is an analysis of its development status and main problems:
Retail expansion: The popularity of convenience stores, fresh supermarkets, and chain restaurants has promoted the demand for air curtain cabinets, especially the rise of 24-hour convenience stores and community fresh stores.
Consumption upgrade: Consumers have increased requirements for food preservation and display effect. Air curtain cabinet has both refrigeration and display functions, especially suitable for beverages, dairy products, fast food and other goods.
Policy support: The government strengthened supervision of cold chain logistics and food safety (such as the “14th Five-Year Plan” cold chain Logistics Development Plan), which indirectly led to the standardization demand for air curtain cabinets.
Energy saving and environmental protection: The new air curtain cabinet uses frequency conversion technology, LED lighting, and low GWP refrigerants (such as R290), which comply with national energy efficiency standards and “dual carbon” targets.
Intelligent: Some high-end products are equipped with temperature monitoring, remote management, fault warning and other functions to adapt to smart retail scenarios.
Haier, Aucma, Star and other domestic brands occupy the middle market, the cost advantage is obvious; Foreign brands (e.g. Panasonic, Carrier) dominate the high-end segment.
The industrial chain is mature, Jiangsu, Guangdong and other places have formed the air curtain cabinet industrial cluster, and its supporting supply chain is perfect.
From the traditional supermarket to expand to milk tea shops, bakery shops, unmanned retail cabinets and other new scenes, customization needs (such as size, temperature area) increased.
Major issues
The open design of air curtain cabinet leads to serious loss of cold capacity and high long-term operation energy consumption, which is in contradiction with the trend of green and low-carbon.
The energy efficiency of some small and medium-sized brand products is not up to standard, and inefficient compressors and inferior insulation materials are still in use.
The convergence of functions of middle and low-end market products, the dependence of enterprises on price competition, the compression of profit margins, affecting research and development investment.
Some manufacturers sacrifice quality for low cost, resulting in a high failure rate (such as fan damage, condenser blockage).
Industry standards (such as JB/T 7244) are lagging behind in updating, and the requirements for energy efficiency and environmental protection of air curtain cabinets are not detailed enough.
The second-hand refurbishment market is chaotic, and there are security risks and environmental risks.
First-tier cities and coastal areas demand saturation, third – and fourth-tier cities and rural market penetration is low, limited by retail maturity and purchasing power.
The slow after-sales response of small and medium-sized enterprises and the shortage of professional maintenance personnel affect the user experience.
The maintenance cost of cold chain equipment is high, and some merchants shorten the life of equipment due to insufficient maintenance.
It still relies on imported components (such as high-end compressors) in key technical areas such as noise reduction, anti-condensation, and multi-temperature zone control.
The penetration rate of intelligent functions is low, and the acceptance of high-priced intelligent devices by small and medium-sized merchants is limited.
Future trends and suggestions
Promote energy-saving technologies such as full DC frequency conversion and magnetic levitation compressor, and develop solar complementary air curtain cabinets.
Dynamic temperature control and inventory management combined with iot.
We will improve energy efficiency labeling and subsidy policies, and eliminate high-energy-consuming products.
Strengthen the supervision of second-hand equipment recycling and standardize the market.
Develop the county economy and small business market, and launch economic models.
Cooperate with fresh e-commerce and community group buying to explore leasing models.
Leading enterprises take the lead in formulating group standards and promoting differentiated competition.
Strengthen collaborative innovation between cold chain equipment and retail scenes (such as embedded advertising screens, self-service payment functions).
Sum up
China’s air curtain cabinet market is in a period of growth, but it faces multiple challenges such as energy consumption, competition and service. In the future, it is necessary to achieve high-quality development through technology upgrading, standard improvement and business model innovation, especially in the context of “new retail” and “dual carbon”, industry integration and professional division of labor will accelerate.
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