In the third quarter of 2025, the domestic lifebuoy industry ushered in a new round of technological innovation. With the increase in water safety supervision, the improvement of public safety awareness and the upgrading of emergency rescue needs, traditional lifebuoys are accelerating their transformation to the integration of "high-performance materials + intelligent technology", and a number of new products with precise rescue and intelligent early warning functions have been put into the market, promoting the industry to enter a new stage of high-quality development.

Material innovation: from "durable" to "all-round"

Traditional lifebuoys mostly use basic materials such as polyethylene, which can meet basic buoyancy needs, but their stability and impact resistance in extreme environments are still limited. Nowadays, leading enterprises in the industry have introduced new materials such as aviation-grade buoyancy materials and wear-resistant composite materials to achieve comprehensive breakthroughs in performance.

- The "ultra-light and high-strength lifebuoy" developed by a company adopts a honeycomb-like sandwich structure design, which is 30% lighter than traditional products, but can withstand an impact force of 3 times its own weight, even in complex scenarios such as reef collisions and low-temperature waters, and its service life is extended to more than 5 years.
- For the high-salt spray environment at sea, the new anti-corrosion lifebuoy increases the corrosion resistance by 60% through surface nano-coating technology, which is suitable for special scenarios such as offshore aquaculture and ocean shipping, and solves the pain points of traditional products that are prone to aging and need to be replaced frequently.

Intelligent empowerment: make rescue more accurate and efficient

Under the trend of technology integration, lifebuoys are no longer simple "floating tools", but have become intelligent equipment that integrates perception, communication and rescue functions.

- More accurate positioning and tracking: The intelligent lifebuoy equipped with the Beidou short message positioning module can return location information in real time, and will automatically send an early warning signal to the monitoring platform when it detects that the user has deviated from the safe waters or stayed for a timeout, which has been widely used in scenic lakes, reservoirs and other areas, and helped Zhejiang, Yunnan and other scenic spots to warn 12 potential drowning risks in advance this summer.
- Faster rescue response: Remote-controlled lifebuoys with automatic tracking are a new highlight. After the rescuer locks the target through the terminal equipment, the lifebuoy can independently avoid obstacles and accurately reach the drowning person at a speed of 3 m/s, which is 40% more efficient than traditional human rescue. In the 2025 Yangtze River Basin flood control drill, the equipment cooperated with drone delivery to achieve an efficient response of "discovery is rescue".
- More flexible scene adaptation: For special groups such as children and the elderly, the company has launched a lightweight lifebuoy with sound and light alarm and one-click call for help, weighing only 1.2 kg, which significantly improves wearing comfort, and supports linkage with the guardian's mobile app to monitor the user's status in real time.

Policy and demand drive market growth

In recent years, the Ministry of Emergency Management of the People's Republic of China has continuously issued standards such as the "Safety Technical Specifications for Water Lifesaving Equipment", which clearly requires that life-saving equipment in public places be regularly updated and included in the intelligent supervision system to provide policy support for the technological upgrading of the industry. According to the data, in the first half of 2025, the sales volume of the domestic smart lifebuoy market increased by 58% year-on-year, and scenic spots, municipal rivers, and water sports venues became the main procurement scenarios.
Industry experts said that with the further penetration of 5G and Internet of Things technology, the future lifebuoy will develop in the direction of "air-ground integrated collaborative rescue" and "AI intelligent decision-making", which can not only improve rescue efficiency, but also build a water safety early warning system through data accumulation, from passive rescue to active protection, and escort public water safety.