Used Packaging Equipment & Machinery

Used packaging equipment covers both stages of a production line. Primary packaging puts the product into its first container. That is the work of fillers, cappers, sealers, blister machines, and form-fill-seal units. Secondary packaging groups those containers for shipment. Cartoners, case packers, bundlers, tapers, palletizers, and stretch wrappers do that job. Labelers, coders, checkweighers, metal detectors, and inspection systems sit between the two stages and confirm what has been packed.

Federal Equipment Company stocks more than 525 used packaging machines across 35 subcategories. The largest groups are labelers, coders and printers, liquid fillers, form-fill-seal machines, cappers, and inspection equipment. Sealers, tablet and capsule fillers, blister machines, powder fillers, and cartoners follow. Manufacturers include IMA, Uhlmann, Videojet, Kaps All, Klockner, MGS, Pester, All-Fill, Mettler Toledo, and CEIA. Sizes run from bench-top semi-automatic units to continuous lines rated at hundreds of containers per minute. Most of the inventory is held at our Cleveland, OH facility and is available for inspection.

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Request Sourcing Help Tell us the container, the format, and the speed you need to hit. We will look for it across our network.

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Browse our selection below and request a quote for more information regarding our Used Packaging Equipment & Machinery.

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

Primary packaging machines are matched to the product and the container before anything else. Liquid fillers meter by piston, pump, gravity, or net weight. Fill volumes in our inventory run from 1 mL to 1,000 mL. Powder fillers meter with an auger or a volumetric cup. Blister and thermoformer machines draw a web of film, form pockets, drop the product in, and seal foil over the top. Form-fill-seal machines do the same job with a flexible web. They turn out pouches, sachets, and stick packs. Cappers apply and torque the closure. Induction sealers then bond a foil liner to the bottle land.

Secondary packaging starts once the primary pack is closed. Cartoners erect a carton, load it, and close the flaps. The layout is either horizontal or vertical. Case packers and tray packers group cartons or bottles into a shipper. Bundlers and shrink tunnels wrap a film collation and heat it down. Tapers close the case and palletizers stack it. Case sizes in our stock range from 150 x 100 x 100 mm to 600 x 400 x 400 mm. Palletizers are set up for both 800 x 1,200 mm European and 1,000 x 1,200 mm US pallets.

Between and after those two stages sits the equipment that proves the pack is right. Checkweighers weigh every container and reject the ones outside limits. Metal detectors and X-ray units screen for contamination. Camera and vision systems check fill level, cap position, seal integrity, and label placement. Rates reach 36,000 units per hour. Coders and printers apply lot codes, expiration dates, and serialization data. Allen-Bradley and Siemens PLCs with touchscreen operator panels are common on later machines. Older units run simpler relay or single-board controls.

Federal Equipment Company inspects equipment at intake. We record drive condition, product contact surfaces, control function, and the change parts included. Change parts carry more weight on packaging machinery than on most process equipment. Container size, cap size, carton size, and film format are all set by tooling. Refurbishment and testing can be arranged before shipment. Most machines are available for inspection at our Cleveland, OH facility.

Applications & Industries

Specifications & Configurations

Specification Range
Line stage Primary and secondary machines, from fillers through palletizers.
Liquid fill volume 1 mL to 1,000 mL (1 oz. to 33 oz.).
Rated speed 12 cases per minute on case packers. 20 blisters per minute on semi-automatic blister equipment. Up to 400 bottles per minute on sleeve applicators. 500 vials per minute at cartoner in-feed. 700 labels per minute on label printers.
Inspection rate Up to 36,000 units per hour on camera systems. Up to 200,000 tablets per hour on tablet inspection.
Container sizes Vials 8 to 95 mm diameter, up to 240 mm tall. Bottles 50 to 105 mm diameter. Tubes 10 to 50 mm diameter.
Case and pallet formats Cases 150 x 100 x 100 mm to 600 x 400 x 400 mm. Pallets 800 x 1,200 mm (EU) and 1,000 x 1,200 mm (US).
Film and label formats Film widths 56 to 450 mm. Label widths 20 to 80 mm. Label lengths 50 to 200 mm.
Heads, lanes, and stations Single-head bench machines. 8-spindle rotary cappers. 12-lane tablet counters. 14-station tube fillers.
Drive power 1/6 HP to 10 HP.
Electrical 110 to 240 volt single-phase bench machines. 208 to 480 volt three-phase floor machines.
Materials of construction Stainless steel product contact surfaces. 304 stainless steel and 316L stainless steel on specific machines. Carbon steel on a few frames and wrappers.
Controls Allen-Bradley and Siemens PLCs. Touchscreen and PanelView operator interfaces. Servo-driven metering and sealing.
Mounting Bench-top, portable on casters, floor-standing, or integrated into a line.
Condition Used and unused machines.

Model series we see regularly

Individual machines come and go, but the same series recur across our inventory. Blister and carton: Uhlmann UPS thermoformers, Uhlmann C-series cartoners, and Klockner EAS and CP blister machines. Capping and sealing: Kaps All A and AU cappers, Surekap SK cappers, Enercon LM sealers, Pillar Unifoiler sealers, and Sigma CapSeal sealers. Coding, counting, and end of line: Videojet Excel coders, Kirby Lester KL tablet counters, Axon EZ neck banders, and Columbia FL palletizers.

Why Buy Used

Used packaging machinery sells for a fraction of comparable new equipment. The gap is widest on secondary packaging. Tapers, bundlers, case packers, and palletizers change little from one generation to the next. An older machine does the same work as a new one.

Lead time is often the deciding factor. A new cartoner or blister line is a build-to-order item, with lead times measured in months. A machine already on the floor can ship in days or weeks once inspection is complete.

Change parts decide what a used packaging machine can actually run. Container size, cap size, carton size, and film format are all set by tooling. The format parts supplied with a machine set the range it covers without new tooling. Federal Equipment Company records those parts at intake. Inspection reports are available, and refurbishment and testing can be arranged upon request. Validation of the installed machine stays with the buyer.