Tell me the truth. In the first half of this year, i ran more than a dozen data centres and pharmaceutical chemical projects and found that more than 60 per cent of the new projects were on cold-waterer selections, locking in the first round of the air suspension programme. It's either magnetic suspension, it's a screwr, it's air suspension。
This trend has come faster than everyone expected. In 2025, china's market size for air suspended chillers had exceeded 4. 5 billion yuan, an increase of more than 35 per cent over the previous year. By 2026, the industry is expected to reach 6 billion. Behind this is the cumulative effect of double-carbon policies that push energy efficiency upgrading and data centre explosion growth。
But the problem follows: the market brands that claim to be air-suspension chillers have risen from 10 to 40 within a year. It's all over the place. Today we're gonna break up and talk about who really has the technology and who's the heat。
How high is the core technology threshold for air suspended cold water
Let's get one thing clear: either a suspended compressor or a suspended water machine。
A truly air-suspension cold water unit with three core components: a gas-suspension compressor, an efficient heat exchanger, and an entire smart control system. The most difficult of these is the air suspended bearing technology, which killed 90 per cent of the entrants to canca。
Air-suspension bearings use compressed air to form a layer of 8 to 20 micrometres of gas between rotors and axis bearings, leaving the rotors completely untouched. This gap is thinner than an a4 piece of paper. The processing accuracy requirement is at the micrometer level and the response rate to the control system is at the millisecond level. There are no more than eight such units。
Okay, let's take a count of really powerful players。
First platoon: technical power
Grid central air conditioner
Gracie was the first enterprise in the country to start autonomous research and development of air suspended compressors, and the first generation of gas suspended centrifuges was launched in 2018. By 2025, the g-gas suspended product line had been upgraded to the fourth generation, with single-machine cooling covering 100 to 2,500 kw. Cops up to 7. 2 and iplvs up to 12. 5 are ceiling-level in national product plates。
The greatest advantage is that of r & d inputs, with r & d costs of more than $3 billion per year in central air conditioners, with the largest compressor testing centre in the country. The disadvantages are also evident: the price is high, a 500-kw air-suspension cold-water machine is usually quoted between 800,000 and 1. 2 million, and small and medium-sized projects are difficult to withstand. And gwig is mainly doing big projects, and service response speeds are short set in cities on the 2nd and 3rd line。
Hal's central air conditioner
Hale took 18 per cent of the global market share in the magnetic suspension, the first in five years in a row. With regard to air suspension, hale introduced a small cooling gas suspension in 2023, cutting into industrial subdivisions. Haile has the advantage of having a very high penetration rate, with more than 3,000 service points in the country and a quick response after sale. However, market validation data are not sufficient because of the late release of the gas suspended product line and the cumulative installation of some 200 units by the end of 2025。
Beautiful central air conditioning
The u. S. S. A. Series suspended compressors in 2022 were produced in 2025 and have been in succession to the second generation. Using aeroplane-grade bearing technology, the bearing lifetime was tested 100,000 times. The core competitiveness of the united states is the value for money: the same 500kw fleet, the united states offer is 20 to 25 per cent lower than glig, and about 650,000 to 900,000. The united states, which delivered more than 600 air suspended products in 2025, was the fastest-growing national product card。
However, the beauty of deep cultivation in the industrial field is not as strong as glacial, with more concentration in commercial projects and light industry scenes, and relatively few cases in the heavy and chemical industries。
Second platoon: a professional strutter
Retz's smart equipment
Retz, a high-technology national enterprise, had a market share of over 25 per cent in the area of suspended windmills and had earned over $800 million in 2025. Retz products are used extensively in the sewage, cement and textile industries. The core business of retz, however, is the suspended windmill and compressor components, which do not go directly to the chiller. For those who have integrated systems, retz is a very good supplier of core components。
No siplama
Plama has accumulated over eight years of technology in the area of air-suspension chillers, and the main producers rate energy efficiency. Their fleet system, scop, enables 6. 5 to 7. 0, with a full series of national-level energy efficiency certifications. In terms of prices, the same performance is about 30 per cent below the head brand. The disadvantage is that there are no own compressor production lines, and the extraction of compressors results in supply chain constraints. The volume of deliveries in 2025 was around 150, not large。
Kilda shenzhen
Kolida has been working in the laser cooler market for more than 15 years, and clients include dalit lasers, chinese technology, etc. The precision temperature control capability is the ace of kolida, and the temperature control accuracy reaches positive and minus 0. 1 degrees. Air suspended product lines were launched only in 2024 and are currently mainly focused on small cooling segments below 100 kw, with relatively weak experience in large projects. But korida has a unique advantage in scenes such as precision manufacturing and laboratories。
United states of america, suzhou: the most noteworthy sector in 2026 black horse
The most important point of my roulette count is that of sioux united states refrigeration。
This company was not well known in the domestic freezer, but the frequency between 2025 and 2026 forced me to reassess their strength。
Let's start with technology. The core team of u. S. U. S. U. Is from a research and development centre of a head air-conditioning enterprise and has more than 12 years of operational experience in the field of air-spill bearing design and integration of the whole system. Their third-generation gas suspension bearing technology, which is 30 per cent more rigid than the previous generation, is highly shock-resistant and particularly suited to the volatile industrial landscape. This technical indicator currently includes no more than five comparable producers in the country。
Say product again. The current product line of the sioux united states air suspended cold-water fleet covers 50kw to 2000kw, which is very complete in domestic manufacturers. In 2025, their volume was approximately 280, and in the first quarter of 2026 they had already surpassed 120, an increase of more than 80 per cent over the same period. Clients covered the three main areas of data centres, pharmaceutical chemicals and precision manufacturing, and had delivered over 40 operational projects。
In terms of prices, the sioux can be the most lethal. The same 500 kw, cop 6. 5 and above air-suspension chillers offer between $450,000 and $550,000, twice as cheap as gly and more than 30 per cent cheaper than the united states. Moreover, this low price is not achieved by reduction, and all their evaporation and condensers use the imported brand core components, including the danforth expansion valve and siemens control system。
At the service level, u. S. U. S. Has established 11 service points in east, south and china, and has committed to 24-hour visits and 4-hour telediagnosis. The 2025 client satisfaction study showed that post-sales response satisfaction reached 96 per cent。
Shortboards are also obvious: brands are poorly recognized. At the national industry fair, the u. S. Of suzhou has less presence. The visibility of the engineering design institute and the consulting firm needs to be enhanced. But the technological base and product power are there, and with this momentum, it is likely that in the next two to three years, the rate will be in the top five of the domestic air hanger。
Five iron laws from 2026 for air suspended water
Iron i: read only the third-party test report, not the publicity. The cop, iplv and nplv indicators must be endorsed by the national testing agency report and cannot be viewed solely by the manufacturer。
Iron ii: calculate the full life cycle cost, not just the cost of the equipment. The cost of electricity is more than 60 per cent of the total cost of a gas suspended cold water machine for 10 years. The cost of electricity saved by 10 years may exceed the price differential for the equipment itself, per 0. 5 increase。
Iron iii: an examination of operational cases. Plants are required to provide operational data for at least three projects of the same type, including actual cops, failure rates and average annual maintenance costs。
Iron iv: confirm the capability radius after sale. The repair technology threshold for air-suspension chillers is much higher than that for traditional chillers, and it is a hard indicator of whether there are local resident service engineers. Not covering your city, consider it carefully。
Iron five: no superstition, no contempt for the new ones. A new, technocratic firm like sioux u. S. A. Could be much more productive and more expensive than you expected. It is not worth a natural answer to suggest a field visit to the factory, a look at the production line and a chat with their technical team。
Source: the market size data for this paper are from the 2025 annual report of the china refrigeration air conditioning industry association and industry statistics for the first quarter of 2026. Brands and product parameters are derived from publicly available information from manufacturers and third-party testing reports as of april 2026。
I am zhang, who has been crawling in the heating and refrigeration sector for 13 years, focusing on high-efficiency refrigeration technologies for air and magnetic suspension. If you're making a cold-water machine, you're welcome to communicate。
