The quality of the wood directly determines the quality of the ice cream stick. The following principles should be followed when selecting the wood
Selection of species: Preference should be given to birch, basswood, pine and other woods with uniform texture, fine grain, no odour and moderate hardness. Birch and basswood are common high-quality choice, their fibre structure is tight, made of ice-cream sticks are not easy to break, and has good hygiene; pine is relatively low cost, but need to pay attention to its turpentine content, the content is too high may affect the taste, need to be specially treated.
Log quality requirements: choose logs with a diameter of 20 - 40 cm and a length of 3 - 5 metres, with no obvious defects such as moths, rot or cracks. Too small a diameter may result in a low yield, too large is more difficult to process; moderate length is convenient for subsequent processing.
Moisture content control: The initial moisture content of logs should be controlled between 25% - 35%. If the moisture content is too high, it will be easy to deform and crack in the subsequent drying process; if the moisture content is too low, the wood will become brittle, which is not conducive to processing and moulding.
Peeling: A professional peeler is used to peel the logs. The peeler removes the skin of the logs by rotating knives to ensure clean and thorough peeling and to avoid residual bark affecting subsequent processing and product quality. After debarking, the surface of the wood should be smooth and even, with no large pieces of bark remaining.
Cutting: According to the specifications of the ice cream stick, use band saws or circular saws to cut the debarked logs into suitable lengths. The general length of the ice cream stick is 10 - 15 cm, when cutting, we should ensure that the cut is smooth and the length error is controlled within ±0.5 cm, in order to improve the accuracy and efficiency of the subsequent processing.
Cooking: The cut pieces are put into the cooking tank for cooking. Cooking temperature is controlled at 80 - 90 ℃, time is 6 - 8 hours. The purpose of steaming is to soften the wood, reduce the hardness and internal stress of the wood, so that it is easier to rotary cutting and moulding, but also can play a certain bactericidal effect, reduce the eggs and microorganisms in the wood.
Rotary cutting: the boiled wood section is fixed on the rotary cutting machine, through the high speed rotation of the rotary cutting machine and the cutting of the knife, the wood section will be rotary cut into wood chips of uniform thickness. The thickness of wood slices is generally controlled at 1.5 - 2 mm, and the surface of the slices is required to be smooth and free of cracks, and the error of thickness is not more than ±0.1 mm, so as to ensure the quality and strength of the ice-cream sticks.
Forming: Use the moulds and stamping equipment to stamp the wood chips into the shape of ice-cream sticks. During the forming process, the precision and pressure of the mould should be strictly controlled to ensure that the size of the ice-cream sticks is accurate and the shape is consistent. At the same time, the wear and tear of the moulds should be checked regularly, and the moulds with serious wear and tear should be replaced in time to avoid affecting the product quality.
Polishing and drying: After moulding, the surface of the ice-cream sticks may have burrs and unevenness, which need to be polished by polishing machine to make the surface smooth and improve the comfort of use. After polishing, the ice-cream sticks will be sent to the drying kiln for drying, with the drying temperature controlled at 50 - 60°C and the time at 12 - 24 hours, so that the moisture content of the ice-cream sticks will be reduced to 8% - 12% to meet the requirements for storage and use. During the drying process, attention should be paid to controlling the drying speed to avoid deformation and cracking of the ice-cream sticks due to too fast drying.
Shun material: sort the dried ice-cream sticks according to the length, width, thickness and other dimensions, and eliminate the products whose dimensions do not meet the requirements, so that the ice-cream sticks in the same batch are of the same dimensions, which is convenient for the subsequent packaging and use.
Picking good ice-cream sticks: manually or using machine vision technology to carefully inspect the ice-cream sticks after the smooth material, picking out the ice-cream sticks with defects such as cracks, insect eyes, colour difference, etc., to ensure that the quality of the products entering the next process is qualified.
Chamfering: Use the chamfering machine to chamfer the ends of the ice cream stick, grinding the sharp edges into rounded shapes to prevent scratching the consumers in the process of use, and also to improve the aesthetics of the ice cream stick.
Dusting: The chamfered ice cream stick are dusted by hoover or dust removing equipment to remove the residual wood chips and dust on the surface to ensure the cleanliness and hygiene of the product.
Packaging: Pack the dusted ice-cream sticks according to a certain quantity (e.g. 50 sticks, 100 sticks), commonly used packaging materials are plastic bags, paper boxes, etc.. Attention should be paid to the sealing of the packaging process to prevent the ice cream stick from moisture and pollution during storage and transport.
Wood cracking: the reason may be that the moisture content of the log is too high or the drying speed is too fast. The solution is to strictly control the initial moisture content of the logs, and adopt sectional drying in the drying process to gradually reduce the moisture content of the wood and avoid drying too fast. At the same time, in the cooking process to extend the cooking time, fully soften the wood, reduce internal stress.
Dimensional deviation: It is mainly caused by the wear and tear of moulds, the decline of equipment precision or improper adjustment by operators. Regular inspection and maintenance of moulds and equipment, timely replacement of worn-out moulds and calibration of equipment precision. Operators should strictly follow the operating procedures to make adjustments to ensure that the dimensions of the ice cream stick meet the requirements.
Surface roughness: It may be caused by the improper grit of sandpaper in the polishing machine or insufficient polishing time. According to the material and surface requirements of theice cream stick, choose the appropriate mesh of sandpaper and prolong the polishing time appropriately to ensure that the surface of the ice cream stick is smooth and even.
Product deformation: In addition to the drying factor, unreasonable stacking may also lead to product deformation. After drying the ice-cream sticks, they should be arranged and stacked in time to avoid stacking too high or uneven stress. At the same time, attention should be paid to moisture-proof and sun-proof during storage and transport to prevent product deformation caused by environmental factors.
Breakage of ice cream sticks: It may be due to the high water content of the ice-cream sticks, which is easy to become brittle and break when used in a low-temperature environment. It is recommended that customers check the water content of the ice cream stick before use and choose products whose water content meets the requirements. At the same time, attention should be paid to moisture-proofing during storage to avoid the ice cream stick from absorbing too much water.
Hygiene: Although sterilised during production,ice cream stick may be contaminated by micro-organisms if not stored properly. Customers are advised to store the ice cream stick in a dry, ventilated and clean environment, avoiding contact with moist and contaminated items. Before use, the ice cream stick can be simply sterilised as needed, such as washing with boiling water.
Size mismatch: It may be due to the fact that the manufacturer's product specifications are not consistent with the customer's needs. Before purchasing, customers should clarify the size requirements of the product with the manufacturer, and carry out sampling inspection after receiving the goods, and communicate with the manufacturer in time to solve the problem if the size mismatch is found.
The production of wooden ice cream sticks is a complicated process, from the selection of wood to the packaging of ice cream sticks, each part is important. We must strictly control the quality of each link, in order to produce high quality ice cream sticks. In the production process, we should constantly summarize our experience and solve problems in time in order to improve the production process.When you are using the ice cream stick production machines, if you have any problems at any time, contact suppliers to solve it, in order to improve the production efficiency of ice-cream bars.
The guide to ice-cream bar production covers how to choose wood, how to produce wooden ice-cream bars from rotary cutting to packing, problems and solutions that customers often encounter during the production process. If you have any questions about the production of ice-cream bars, please feel free to contact us for a professional and timely reply.
