Application and Development of Ice Cream Cartoning Machine in the Food Industry

Ice cream cartoning machines (including automatic box dropping, tray feeding, and post-packing/boxing after pillow packaging) are a core node in the automation of downstream packaging in the frozen beverage industry. Their application and development closely adhere to the four main principles of "reducing manpower, controlling bacteria, flexibility, and green practices," and are moving from single-machine replacement of manual labor to production line-level intelligent collaboration.

I. Application Scenarios in the Food Industry

Replacing manual box dropping and breaking through production line bottlenecks: Early ice cream boxing relied heavily on manual labor after freezing, which could not be connected to the front-end horizontal conveyor line, resulting in high hygiene risks and slow production pace.

Multi-form adaptability: Models are available for stick ice cream (post-packing/boxing after pillow packaging), cup/tub ice cream (feeding → boxing → sealing), sandwich/irregularly shaped ice cream (tray forming + tray feeding + group packaging), and family-sized brick ice cream (large-size boxing and boxing).

Integrated Back-End Production Line: Modern cartoning machines are no longer isolated devices, but rather integrated with material handling lines, pillow-packing machines, unloading machines, case packers, and palletizing robots to form a closed loop of "horizontal conveying—material handling—packaging—cartoning—boxing—palletizing."

New Product Category Friendly: Plant-based ice cream and trendy small-batch, multi-flavor products are sensitive to changeover efficiency; flexible cartoning, visual positioning, and parametric formula calling have become standard capabilities.

II. Current Development Status and Driving Factors

Market Size: The domestic market size of the broad ice cream/ice cream automatic packaging machine was approximately RMB 4.86 billion in 2024. The ice cream automatic packaging machine segment is expected to exceed RMB 4.2 billion in 2026, while the overall ice cream packaging machine market is projected to reach approximately RMB 5.2 billion in 2025. Fully automatic models account for over 60%, and servo-driven penetration is nearly 90%.

Policy-driven: The "14th Five-Year Plan for Intelligent Manufacturing Development" requires a 70%+ digital coverage rate for key food processing steps; the "General Technical Specification for Automatic Packaging Equipment of Frozen Drinks" (T/CPF028-2024) mandates online sealing detection and material traceability, eliminating small factories lacking software capabilities.

III. Technological Evolution Trends

1. Cold Chain Compatibility and Low-Temperature Sealing: Under -18℃ conditions, materials become brittle and heat seals weaken. Closed-loop PID temperature control + gradient cooling + tension self-adaptation ensures that the sealing strength of biodegradable films such as PLA/PBAT remains stable at 1.8–2.1 N/15mm. Environmentally compatible models account for 41%+ of new orders.
2. Deep Integration of Servo Multi-Axis and Machine Vision: 24–36 axis distributed servos (EtherCAT/PROFINET) can complete the conversion from 70g ice cream cones to 280g family packs within 90 seconds; AI vision positioning and recognition accuracy is 99.99%, sealing yield is 99.5%+, and scrap rate is <0.6%. 3. Modular Quick Changeover and Digital Twin: DH parametric modeling + task mapping enables multi-form switching within 30 seconds; digital twins allow for virtual debugging before shipment, shortening the time-to-market by approximately 30%.

2. IoT + Remote Operation & Maintenance: Cloud-based operational data enables self-diagnosis, fault warning, energy consumption monitoring, and batch traceability, becoming key features for leading manufacturers' "equipment + data + service" integration. 5. Green Development: Ultrasonic sealing (GEA SmartPacker saves 25% energy), biodegradable paper tray automatic tray production lines, and tool-free disassembly and cleaning design (cleaning time -40%) are becoming new selling points.

IV. Market Landscape and Selection Considerations

In short: Ice cream cartoning machines have evolved from simply "saving two people" to intelligent packaging micro-units that determine the hygiene compliance level, changeover response speed, and carbon footprint of a cold drink factory. The focus of competition in the next five years will be "low-temperature flexibility + biodegradable compatibility + production line-level self-organization."

If you wish, Liner Machinery can provide you with a suitable packaging solution according to your product form (sticks/cups/sandwiches).