With the continual shifting of air conditioner manufacturing industry to Mainland China, the focus of industry competition also is becoming concentrated on the control over product cost; on the other hand the development direction of air conditioner manufacturers is also facing two choices: one is large scale, namely both production capacity and sales must reach and surpass 5 million set, and accompanied with serial products; the other is specialization, namely keeping production and sales at the level of 50000 sets which can enable enterprise survival, with certain flexibility in specialization. In fact, both development models are chosen out of consideration for cost competition. The former aims at occupying the market by way of cost advantage acquired through scale operation, whereas the latter strives to meet the demand in areas not covered by the former through flexible approach and specialization.
At present copper tube used in domestic air conditioners generally include the following series:
- Tube for heat exchanger. This generally refers to inner grooved copper tube.
- Tube for supporting tube. Such copper tube is mainly smooth copper tube, with the emphasis placed on excellent shockproof property and pressure resistance.
- Tube for connection use. This generally refers to indoor and outdoor connection tube used in split type air conditioner. Such tube requires good bending and processing property.
- Special shaped tube parts. This generally refers to liquid storage cylinder, three way tube, four way tube or multiple way tube and half round tube; such copper tube requires excellent extensibility and pressure resistance.
The application ratio of the above materials is roughly: Tube for heat exchanger accounts for 60%, supporting tube accounts for 20%, connection tube accounts for 15%, special shaped tube accounts for 5%.
The approximate quantity of copper tube used by the above air conditioner manufacturers is listed in Table 2. In fact, there is no relation between the energy efficiency of actual matching in the factory and the usage quantity of accessory tubes and connection tubes. Instead, it is mainly related to the increase in the area of the exchanger and the difference in compressor setup. For instance, the previous Grade 5 energy efficiency model is upgraded to the existing Grade 3 energy efficiency and Grade 1 energy efficiency, its copper tube usage only increased by 10% and 20%, also the increased part is in tubes for evaporator and condenser, especially condenser tube usage, followed by changes in compressor and cooling medium.
As the competition in the air conditioner industry intensifies, the pressure in cost competition among enterprises is also mounting. All air conditioner manufacturers rely on technical progress to enable copper usage to move toward small diameter, high efficiency or thin wall application.
Written by Nicolas Yang
