The Tealight Line Buyer's Guide: Capacity, Core Machines, and Acceptance

Expert Guide to Building a Fully Automatic Tealight Production Line

A successful tealight line is not defined by the fastest standalone machine. It depends on balanced wax melting, cup feeding, wick anchoring, two-stage filling, cooling, labeling, and packing. This guide summarizes the essential product, capacity, and equipment decisions for a stable pouring-type tealight line.

Figure 1. Automatic tealight production line overview from Yide Machinery.

1. Key Facts: Tealight Formats and Wax Selection

Before selecting equipment, confirm the aluminum cup size, wax weight, target burn time, wax formulation, wick length, metal sustainer, and packaging format.

Melting point is not the pouring temperature. The final working window must be validated with the actual fragrance, dye, additives, cup, and room conditions.

2. Line Planning Essentials
A standard line follows this sequence:
Aluminum cup elevator → sorting turntable → cup pusher → first pour → second pour → oven/reheating → optional labeling or shrink wrapping → packing table
The second pour compensates for cooling shrinkage. Cooling time, conveyor speed, and any preheating or reheating step must be tested with the actual wax.

Figure 2. Reference U-shaped single-line layout, approximately 25 meters long.

The source design uses an approximately 25-meter U-shaped line with six wick-anchoring machines and a combined design target above 40,000 pieces per hour. Final sustained output depends on the product, wax, bottleneck station, and continuous-run results.

Staffing values are planning references, not guaranteed labor savings. Actual requirements depend on packaging, material handling, shifts, quality control, and automation level.

Three Rules for Reliable Line Balance

Rule 1: Size the melting section by wax demand, not tank volume alone. Heating time, solid-wax charging, holding losses, and recipe changes reduce usable supply. The filling station should not wait for wax, so the project needs enough melting and holding capacity to cover normal production plus a practical buffer.

Rule 2: Protect the main line with controlled accumulation. Cup feeding, wick anchoring, filling, cooling, and packing do not recover from stops at the same speed. Short buffer sections prevent one temporary interruption from stopping every machine. However, accumulation must remain controlled so cups do not jam, deform, or lose their process sequence.

Rule 3: Convert every rate to the same unit. Melting is measured in kg, wick anchoring and filling in pieces per hour, and labeling or shrinking in packs per minute. Define the wax weight per candle and the number of candles per pack, then convert all stations to pieces per hour. The lowest effective rate is the true line bottleneck.

Layout and Utility Priorities

A U-shaped layout reduces walking distance and keeps line supervision compact, but it must still provide safe access for replenishment, cleaning, maintenance, and emergency evacuation.

Separate raw wax, fragrance, packaging materials, work in process, and finished goods. Keep the hot melting and pouring area well ventilated and away from packaging storage.

Place quality checks where defects can still be corrected: verify wick centering before pouring, fill weight after each pouring stage, and surface condition after cooling. Provide sampling space without blocking the conveyor. This prevents defects from traveling to labeling and packing, where rework becomes slower and more expensive.

For a complete plant, the source plan recommends at least 2,000 m², approximately 200 kW of electrical capacity, and 0.4–0.6 MPa compressed air. Confirm voltage, frequency, phase, installed load, cable routes, air consumption, floor loading, fire protection, and ambient-temperature control before approving the final layout.

3. Core Machines

4. Delivery and Service

Design confirmation and layout → equipment manufacturing → integrated line testing → video or on-site pre-shipment acceptance → wooden-case packing, transport, and installation guidance → one-year warranty and lifetime maintenance.

The factory acceptance test should use the buyer's actual cup, wax, wick, and packaging. Record average acceptable output, weight distribution, wick centering, surface quality, unplanned stops, and recovery procedures.

Before manufacturing starts, the technical agreement should freeze the product range, machine quantities, utility conditions, layout boundaries, control language, spare-parts scope, and acceptance method. During the integrated test, verify missing-cup and missing-wick detection, jam recovery, emergency stops, restart procedures, recipe changeover, and cleaning access. A short dry-cycle video is useful for progress confirmation, but it does not replace a continuous product test under agreed conditions.

5. FAQ

1. Why use a first and second pour?
Wax contracts during cooling. The first pour forms the main body, while the second pour compensates for sink marks and improves the top surface. Temperature, weight, and timing must be tested with the actual formulation.

2.Why is rated machine speed different from complete-line output?
The line is limited by its slowest effective process, including replenishment, cleaning, changeovers, cooling residence time, and packaging. Sustained output should be confirmed through an integrated continuous test.

3.Can the three capacity configurations be copied directly?
No. They assume 10 g per candle and ten operating hours per day. Recalculate equipment and wax demand when cup weight, wax type, shifts, changeovers, or packaging changes.

4.Does automation guarantee a fixed labor saving or payback period?
No. Labor savings and ROI depend on local wages, product mix, yield, packaging automation, shift pattern, and equipment utilization. They must be calculated for the specific project.

5.How should a supplier be evaluated?
Confirm that the supplier understands pouring-type tealight production, can test with your actual materials, provides a complete layout, defines acceptance criteria, and clearly states installation, training, spare-parts, and after-sales responsibilities.

Build the Line Around Your Product
Send your target daily output, aluminum cup drawing or sample, wax weight, formulation, wick and sustainer specifications, packaging format, plant layout, and local electrical supply to Yide Machinery for a project-specific configuration and line proposal.

Dongguan Yide Machinery Co., Ltd
Tel\Whatsapp\Weixin: +86 177 0263 8701
Web:https://www.yidewaxmachine.com/ https://yide0769.en.alibaba.com
E-mail: waxmachine@dgyide0769.com

Add: Room 101, Building 2, No.28 Houde Road, Jiaolian Community, Wanjiang Sub-district, Dongguan, Guangdong Province, China