The Beginning
AirBox (officially Air Box Co., LTD.) was established in 2003 by Mr. Kim Byung-Joo in the city of Incheon, Korea, as an inflatable product manufacturing company. The first product was an air mattress with simple internal structure, produced as OEM/ODM for other well-known brands.
Standard drop-stitch model in the AirBox R&D Center.
Drop-stitch Pioneer
On his continuous research towards improving inflatable products, Mr. Kim Byung-Joo learned about the drop-stitch construction. The history of drop-stitch construction goes back to 1950s, but AirBox was the first to introduce a consumer product in 2007. Since then, drop-stitch construction has become widely adopted, especially among water lesiure products.
Rigid and Durable
Drop-stitch is made with thousands of polyester stitches, known as "space yarn", that holds the fabrics together. It improves the resistance against bending, leaning and tiliting, giving drop-stitch products its unique rigidness and durability. This allowed AirBox to expand the product base to what was previously considered "unthinkable" in the realm of inflatable products.
Diagram of drop-stitch construction.
TPU, the Next Groundbreaking Step
With increasing concern to consumer and environmental safety, AirBox has chose to use TPU (thermoplastic polyurethane) as the main material. PVC (polyvinyl chloride) which is used by most inflatables, are cheap and has simple manufacturing process. However, PVC contains substances like heavy metals and BPA that are harmful to both the user and the environment. TPU on the otherhand, is expensive, requires difficult process, but does not contain harmful substances. In fact, AirBox has requested world-reknown testing institutes to test the TPU used by AirBox on over 180 harmful substances and the reslt is ZERO containment of all of the substances, and fully compliant to Europe regulations EC No 1907/2006.
Never Ending R&D
In 2009, AirBox receives the ISO 9001 certification for production quality management. This has allowed AirBox to focus on new product research and development, thus making rapid product lineup expansion. Today, AirBox is the largest OEM and ODM manufacturer of TPU drop-stitch inflatable products in the world, with factories both in Korea as well as Cambodia.
Drop-stitch fabrication machine developed by AirBox.
More than 100,000 Air Mattresses Delivered
AirBox currently produces consumer (camping and outdoor) products, water lesiure (water boats, bridges, rafts, slides and more) products, martial arts and gymnastics (safety floors, jumping platforms and more) products, and rescue and safety (emergency sheter, stretcher and more) products. Today, the air mattress may only be one of many products made by AirBox, but it still is the company's most iconic product. The word "AirBox" in Korea has become synonymous to "premium air mattress", and has backed memorable car camping trips through more than 100,000 units sold.
To learn more about the Eco Airmat, please refer to the product page and the support page.
For inquiries regarding OEM and ODM, please send e-mail to overseas@airbox.co.kr
