Abstract: A tray unloader for special size cigarette packets was designed to improve the efficiency of cigarette packet unloading and feeding in the mechanized production process. The tray unloader consists of an infeed conveyor, a tray lifting device, a packet pickup device, and an emptied tray reservoir. By the infeed conveyor and the lifting device, the trays filled with cigarette packets are transported to the packet pickup station where the cigarette packets are picked up layer by layer by a honeycomb suction plate and transferred to an unloading station. The emptied trays are transported to the reservoir. By analyzing the force acting on the cigarette packets, it was found that the number of micro suction holes on the honeycomb suction plate was 300 with suction hole diameter of 4 mm. A test was conducted on the cartoning line of "Dachongjiu" cigarette brand at Kunming Cigarette Factory, and the results showed that only one operator was needed, it was 7 operators less than that in manual loading process. The production of stiff soft packet cigarettes and hard packet slim cigarettes increased by 4 125 and 3 500 cartons per shift, respectively. This technology supports the improvement of the mechanized production level of special size cigarette packets.