Used Extrusion Lines

An extrusion line turns plastic resin into a continuous product of fixed cross section. Every line starts with an extruder that melts and meters the polymer through a die. The equipment after the die sets the product: a sheet stack for sheet, a bubble tower for blown film, a vacuum sizing tank and puller for tubing, or a pelletizer for compound. Buying a complete line gets the extruder, die, and downstream train together, already sized to run as one system.

Federal Equipment Company stocks used extrusion lines. The range covers sheet, blown film, profile and tubing, coating, foam, filament, and pelletizing lines, from bench-scale laboratory systems to full production lines. Brands we see regularly include Davis-Standard, Gloucester, Leistritz, Welex, Erema, and Coperion. Most lines are held at our Cleveland, OH facility and are available for inspection.

Can't Find What You Need?

Request Sourcing Help Tell us the product, the resin, the width or diameter, and the output you need. We will look for a complete line or the pieces to build one.

Sell Your Equipment We buy complete extrusion lines and plant surplus outright. Send us a list, and we will make an offer.

Browse our selection below and request a quote for more information regarding our Used Extrusion Lines.

You can also view our full on-hand inventory across all categories.

A complete extrusion line is several machines that have to agree with each other. The extruder sets the melt rate. The die shapes the melt. Everything downstream cools, sizes, pulls, and winds or cuts the product at the same speed the extruder delivers it. Buying those pieces as one line, rather than matching them from separate sources, removes much of the matching work from a startup.

Sheet lines are the second-largest group after pelletizing. They run a single-screw or twin-screw extruder into a flat sheet die, then through a three-roll vertical sheet stack with cored, chrome-plated rolls, a cooling conveyor, a pull roll stand, and a winder or shear. Widths here range from a 10-inch sheet line to an 80-inch co-extrusion cast film and sheet system. Co-extrusion lines combine two to five extruders for multilayer sheet. Calender lines are a related design, with a three-roll calender in place of the sheet stack, and they have been paired with cool-feed rubber extruders.

Blown film lines push the melt through an annular die and inflate it into a bubble, which is cooled by an air ring, collapsed, and wound. Lines in this category have ranged from 14-inch towers to a large oriented polypropylene line with preheating and annealing ovens. Profile lines cover tubing and hose. They have included surgical tubing and co-extrusion lines with servo-driven pullers and cutters, and reinforced garden hose and spiral hose lines. Coating lines put a crosshead die over wire, or laminate an extruded film to a moving web. Foam lines run two extruders in tandem. Filament lines draw strand through a long water trough to a belt puller and reeler. Stretch tape lines add reheat ovens, Godet roll stands, and fibrillation.

Pelletizing lines are the largest group. They pair a single-screw or twin-screw extruder with a strand, water ring, or underwater pelletizer for compounding and reclaim. The small twin-screw lines come mostly from Leistritz and Thermo Scientific, while Erema INTAREMA systems sit at the large end. Other brands on record include Battenfeld Gloucester, Sterling, Killion, Hydreclaim, and Weifang Jingda.

Applications & Industries

  • Plastics processing: single-layer and multilayer sheet, blown and cast film, and foam sheet.
  • Medical tubing and sheet: surgical tubing lines and co-extrusion lines for small-diameter tube, plus clean room cast sheet for IV bags.
  • Wire and cable: crosshead coating lines with wire payoffs, preheaters, water troughs, capstans, and take-up stands.
  • Compounding and reclaim: twin-screw compounding lines and single-screw reclaim lines that turn resin, additives, and scrap into pellets.
  • Pharmaceutical development: small hot-melt extrusion lines with feeders and strand pelletizers for formulation work.
  • Hose, tape, and filament: garden and spiral hose, fibrillated tape, and filament strand.
  • Rubber: cool-feed rubber extruders paired with three-roll calenders for sheet.

Specifications & Configurations

Specification Range
Main extruder drive 2 to 750 HP
Extruder L/D ratio 5.5:1 to 56:1
Sheet and cast film line width 10" to 80"
Sheet stack and calender roll diameter 8" to 24"
Extruder types Single-screw, co-rotating twin-screw, counter-rotating twin-screw, and conical twin-screw
Barrel cooling Air-cooled and water-cooled, with vented and non-vented barrels

Line types. Sheet, co-extrusion sheet, cast film, calender, blown film, oriented film, profile, tubing, hose, wire coating, laminating, tandem foam, filament, stretch tape, and pelletizing.

Common components. Gravimetric and volumetric feeders, vacuum loaders, hydraulic and continuous screen changers, melt pumps, flex-lip sheet dies, three-roll sheet stacks, air rings and bubble towers, vacuum sizing and spray cooling tanks, belt pullers, cutters, thickness gauges, and turret or two-position winders.

Why Buy Used

A new extrusion line is a build-to-order project, with lead times measured in months once the extruder, die, and downstream train are specified and integrated. A used line of the same width and output typically costs a fraction of the new price, and it arrives with the extruder, die, and downstream equipment already matched.

Extrusion lines hold their value. The frames, gearboxes, sheet stacks, and towers last for decades. The wear items are the screw, barrel liner, screen changer, and heater bands, and all of them can be replaced or rebuilt. A line that ran a clean resin needs far less work than its age suggests.

Every line is inspected when it arrives at our Cleveland, OH facility, and it is available for customer inspection before purchase. Refurbishment and run testing can be arranged upon request. Process validation for your own resin and product remains with the buyer.