Development Status of Glove Box Industry(1)

The origin of glove boxes can be traced back to World War II, when early glove box products emerged to meet the research needs of radioactive military materials. The basic principle is to continuously fill the glove box with inert gas to create an inert environment, which to some extent ensures the conduct of scientific research experiments.

However, early glove boxes had many limitations, such as unstable water and oxygen content leading to significant fluctuations in experimental results, making it difficult to meet high-precision scientific research requirements; At the same time, the high cost of use also limits its large-scale application, and it is only used in specific and environmentally demanding scientific research scenarios, making it difficult to popularize in a wider range of industrial production fields.

With the advancement of technology, the glove box industry has entered a growth stage. In 1976, two German engineers improved the early glove box by introducing a glove box consisting of a glove box body, transition chamber, gloves, and gas purification system, laying the foundation for the development of modern glove boxes. At the same time, some engineers proposed using transparent vinyl material as the glove box window, which greatly expanded the operator's field of vision. In scientific research experiments and precision production, operators can observe the situation inside the box more clearly, thereby achieving more accurate operations and effectively improving the precision of experiments and production.

In terms of market size, the global glove box market has shown strong growth momentum. Between 2018 and 2022, the glove box market grew from RMB 3.5 billion to RMB 4.78 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 8.1%. This growth trend reflects the increasing demand for high-quality production environments in the global manufacturing industry, as well as the growing demand for experimental accuracy in the scientific research field.

With the gradual commercialization and accelerated expansion of cutting-edge technologies such as solid-state batteries and thin-film solar cells in the semiconductor and lithium battery industries around 2024, the glove box market will experience explosive growth. The glove box industry has enormous development potential driven by emerging technologies.

In terms of technological development trends, customized equipment and automated intelligent devices are gradually becoming the mainstream direction of the glove box industry. With the rapid development of communication technology, the Internet of Things, and artificial intelligence, the intelligence level of glove boxes continues to improve. The Internet of Things technology enables the glove box to be connected to the Internet, realizing real-time data transmission and remote monitoring. Operators can master the environmental parameters in the glove box, such as temperature, humidity, oxygen concentration, etc., and adjust them in time. At the same time, the application of artificial intelligence technology enables the glove box to achieve automated operation, such as automatically adjusting gas flow rate and purifying the atmosphere inside the glove box according to preset programs, further improving production efficiency and experimental accuracy.