Manual cup handling is where most disposable-cup plants lose money. Cups come off the mould hot, light and awkward, and every step they are touched by hand adds labour cost and variation. The four units described here replace those steps in sequence, and each one can be added independently as production grows.
What Automation Actually Removes
It is worth being precise about the benefit, because automation is usually sold on headcount alone. The larger gain is often consistency. A hand-packed bag varies in count and in cup orientation, which creates customer complaints; an automated counter produces the same number in every bag and seals it the same way. Labour reduction is real, but repeatability is what protects the brand.
There is also a safety dimension. Cups leaving a mould are warm and the cycle is fast, which is exactly the combination that produces hand and wrist injuries in manual take-out. Removing that step removes the exposure.
Stage 1 — Take-Out From the Mould
The servo take-out robot lifts finished cups from the forming station, carries them clear of the machine, changes their orientation and places them onto the conveyor or stacker. Because three servo axes drive the motion, the pick position repeats exactly from cycle to cycle, which matters when the same position has to be hit several hundred thousand times a week.
The robot is built to the mould rather than to a catalogue size. Gripper pitch, suction cup count, stacking channel arrangement and pick-out direction all follow the tooling, and the head carries up to about 3 kilograms. Reference cycle capability is quoted at up to 30 cycles per minute against a standard layout; treat that as an indication of capability rather than a guaranteed production rate, since cup geometry and cavity count both affect the real figure.
Stage 2 — Stacking and Aligning
Loose cups are difficult to count and impossible to bag neatly. A stacker collects them, aligns each one and builds tidy columns. Alignment is mechanical: adjustable guide fins ease the cup mouth into line as it passes over a series of rotating shafts, which means the stacker consumes no compressed air at all and adds nothing to the plant’s air demand.
Two versions cover the range. The standard stacker carries ten to thirteen channels and handles roughly 30,000 to 40,000 pieces per hour, which suits the VihoX-660 and 720 platforms. The high-speed version widens the frame to carry thirteen to sixteen channels and lifts output to around 40,000 to 50,000 pieces per hour for the 750 and 850 machines. A useful rule of thumb: wider cups occupy more lateral space, so a line producing large containers ends up with fewer channels than one running slim drinking cups.
Stage 3 — Counting and Packing
The final stage counts cups, feeds them into a film tube, seals it and cuts each bag to length. Counting is photoelectric rather than mechanical, so no counting wheel touches or marks the product. Two servo axes drive the film feed and the sealing jaw, an inverter controls the conveyor, and PID temperature control holds the seal bar steady.
Row configuration is selectable as one, two, three or four, and the counter accepts between one and one hundred cups per bag. Accepted films include OPP, HDPE, PE and CPP heat-sealing materials between 0.02 and 0.06 mm thick. Quoted packing speed runs from twenty to fifty bags per minute, but read that as a capability: increasing cups per bag, moving to a thicker film or running an awkward cup profile all reduce the achievable rate.
Stage 4 — The Air and Control Backbone
The auxiliaries do not run on nothing. The take-out robot needs about 0.5 m³/min of air at 0.6 to 0.8 MPa, and the packing machine needs roughly 0.6 MPa for its actuators. Both sit comfortably inside the 0.9 m³/min of usable air delivered by our 10HP permanent-magnet screw compressor, which means the automation package and the air supply can be selected as one system rather than as separate purchases.
Control is equally straightforward: a PLC with servo drives and a touch screen on the robot, inverter and photoelectric sensors on the stackers, and a PLC with recipe storage on the packing machine. Recipes are worth having when a plant runs several cup sizes, because changing over becomes a matter of selecting a stored setting rather than re-teaching the machine.
Automating in Stages
Where capital is limited, the sequence that repays quickest is usually take-out first, then packing, then stacking. Take-out removes the hottest and most repetitive manual task; packing removes the step where inconsistency creates customer complaints. A plant that adds all three stages at once should expect a longer commissioning period, because the units have to be synchronised with each other rather than run standalone.
The Four Auxiliary Units Compared
The table below summarises the specification that matters when the units are bought as a set rather than individually.
| Unit | Function | Key Rating | Power | Air | Recommended Platform |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Servo take-out robot | Pick, transfer, orient, place | Up to 30 cycles/min (reference) | Approx. 1.8 kW servo | 0.5 m³/min at 0.6-0.8 MPa | VihoX-660 / 720 / 750 / 850 |
| Automatic cup stacker | Collect, align, stack | 30,000-40,000 pcs/h, 10-13 channels | 1.5 kW | Not required | VihoX-660 / VihoX-720 |
| High-speed cup stacker | Collect, align, stack at higher rate | 40,000-50,000 pcs/h, 13-16 channels | 2.2 kW | Not required | VihoX-750 / VihoX-850 |
| Counting and packing machine | Count, wrap, seal, cut | 20-50 bags/min (reference), 1-4 rows | 3.5-4.0 kW | Approx. 0.6 MPa | All cup machine models |
What to Prepare Before You Enquire
Automation quotes go wrong when the tooling information is incomplete. Before approaching a supplier, gather the mould drawing, the cup top diameter and height, the mouth wall thickness, the forming speed of the machine the robot will serve, and the retail pack format you need to produce. With those five items a supplier can confirm the gripper arrangement, the stacker channel count and the packing configuration in one pass rather than three.
It also helps to measure your current labour content per thousand cups. Automation projects are easier to justify internally when the baseline is a number rather than an impression.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much labour does automation actually remove?
On a cup line the handling steps are take-out, transfer, stacking and bagging. Automating all four removes the operators who would otherwise do them, and it also removes the inconsistency that hand packing introduces into bag weights and counts.
Do I have to buy all four units at once?
No. Many plants start with the take-out robot, because that is the step with the highest labour content and the greatest risk of burn injuries, and add stacking and packing later. The units are designed to work as a set but each has a standalone function.
Why must the take-out robot be built to my mould?
Gripper pitch, suction cup count and the direction cups leave the machine all follow the tooling. A robot that fits one mould will not necessarily fit another, which is why we ask for the mould drawing before quoting.
Should I choose the standard or the high-speed stacker?
Match the stacker to your cup machine platform. The standard unit covers the VihoX-660 and 720 class; the high-speed version exists for the 750 and 850 platforms where forming output would overwhelm a narrower frame.
How do I decide the packing row configuration?
Start from the retail format you need to produce, then work back. Single-row bags suit retail sleeves of drinking cups; multi-row configurations suit bulk or wholesale packs. More rows reduce the achievable speed for the same machine.
Does the packing machine need three-phase power?
Not by default. Our counting and packing machine is supplied as standard at 220V single phase with 380V available as an option, which is convenient where a three-phase feed is already fully loaded.
Can I automate a line I already own?
Yes. The take-out robot, stacker and packing machine are specified to the cup your existing machine produces, so the usual constraint is floor space and layout rather than the age of the forming machine.
What air supply do the auxiliary units need?
The take-out robot consumes around 0.5 m³/min at 0.6 to 0.8 MPa, and the packing machine needs about 0.6 MPa. Both fit comfortably inside the usable output of our 10HP screw compressor, so the auxiliaries and the air supply can be specified together.
Plan Your Cup Line Automation
Send the mould drawing, the cup dimensions and the pack format you need to produce, and we will confirm the gripper arrangement, stacker channel count and packing configuration in a single pass. These units sit with the rest of our auxiliary equipment and are normally specified together with the cup making machines they serve. WhatsApp the factory: +86 147 7547 6896.