Used De Dietrich Equipment

De Dietrich has built glass-lined process equipment since the 1600s, and the glass-lined reactor is what the name is known for. A steel vessel is coated with a fused glass lining that resists acids, solvents, and halogenated chemistry that would attack bare stainless steel. The lining is why these vessels stay in service for decades.

Federal Equipment Company is an independent dealer in used De Dietrich equipment. We buy and sell De Dietrich glass-lined reactors, glass reactor trains, glass-lined agitators, baffles, valves, Nutsche filters, and vacuum dryers. Reactors range from 5 to 2,000 gallons, with several rated to 300 psi internal and full vacuum. Kilo lab reactor trains range from 25 to 320 liters for bench and pilot work.

Glass-lined components are a large share of what we hold, because an agitator swap is routine on a vessel that is otherwise sound. We stock retreat curve and three-blade agitators, beavertail and finger baffles, plug valves, and manway covers. Most units are held at our Cleveland, OH facility and are available for inspection.

Can't Find What You Need?

Request Sourcing Help Tell us the vessel size, the pressure rating, and the nozzle arrangement you need. We will look for it across our network.

Sell Your Equipment We buy surplus glass-lined vessels and components outright. Send us a list, and we will make an offer.

Browse our selection below and request a quote for more information regarding our equipment from De Dietrich.

Equipment We Carry

De Dietrich equipment reaches us in a consistent mix. Reactors are the bulk of it, and the component classes behind them are nearly as deep, because glass-lined vessels are rebuilt rather than replaced.

  • Glass-lined reactors: the core of the inventory, from 5 to 2,000 gallons. Jacketed for heating and cooling, most rated for full vacuum, with clamped-top and flanged-top bodies alike.
  • Glass-lined agitators: retreat curve, three-blade pitched turbine, and GlasLock designs sized for 20 to 3,000 gallon vessels, including unused and reglassed units.
  • Glass-lined baffles: beavertail, two-finger, three-finger, and sampling baffles for 300 to 4,000 gallon vessels.
  • Glass-lined valves: plug valves in 2-inch x 1.5-inch and 3-inch x 2-inch sizes.
  • Nutsche filters: glass-lined filters and agitated filter-dryers from 0.03 to 0.28 sq meters, including Hastelloy C22 units.
  • Tanks and kettles: glass-lined receivers and jacketed storage vessels, both vertical and horizontal.
  • Conoform and double-cone dryers: glass-lined vacuum dryers from 4.2 to 107 cu ft.
  • Evaporators: circulation evaporators in 100 and 200 liter sizes.
  • Glass-lined manway covers: replacement covers for reactor and receiver openings.
  • Reactor parts: agitator shafts, drive systems, reactor bodies, and dome sections.

Models & Series

Buyers search De Dietrich by series, and a handful recur often enough to be worth naming. CTJ is the clamped-top jacketed reactor line and is the series we see most, in sizes from 20 to 100 gallons and up. FTJ is the flanged-top jacketed line, and the FTJ vessels that come through are usually Optimix units, a baffle-free design that builds the mixing geometry into the vessel wall. RGFD covers the agitated Nutsche filter-dryers built by De Dietrich Process Systems with HLE Glascoat, which arrive in Hastelloy C22. PTS is the powder transfer system line, used to move solids between vessels under vacuum and pressure without an open transfer.

Agitator drives on these vessels are not always De Dietrich. A De Dietrich reactor fitted with a Pfaudler drive is a common configuration, and several vessels in our inventory are built that way. Read the listing rather than the brand when the drive matters to you.

Applications & Industries

  • Chemical processing: the work glass lining exists for. Acids, solvents, and halogenated chemistry including chlorination and bromination, where bare stainless steel would not survive the duty.
  • Pharmaceutical manufacturing: API synthesis and intermediate steps, where the lining protects the product from metal pickup as much as it protects the vessel.
  • Solid dosage production: filtering and drying an active ingredient in one vessel, which is what the agitated Nutsche filter-dryers are built to do.
  • Liquid dosage production: jacketed glass-lined vessels for compounding and holding batches that cannot touch reactive metal.
  • Laboratory and pilot work: kilo lab glass reactor trains from 25 to 320 liters, for process development ahead of scale-up.
  • Extraction and growing: solvent extraction and recovery, where corrosion resistance and full-vacuum service both matter.

Parts & Change Parts

Glass-lined vessels are maintained in place, so the components trade almost as actively as the vessels. A chipped lining, a worn agitator, or a failed baffle does not retire a reactor, and a buyer hunting one component is a different buyer from one shopping for a whole vessel.

What we carry falls into a few families. Agitator shafts and complete agitator assemblies, including GlasLock shafts and retreat curve agitators, sized to the vessel they serve. Agitator drive systems, sold separately from the vessel. Baffles in beavertail, finger, and sampling styles. Plug valves. Manway and great covers. Reactor bodies and dome sections, which are useful when a lining is sound but the head or the nozzles are not.

Match components by vessel size and nozzle arrangement rather than by model number alone, since the same reactor size was built with more than one top configuration. Send us the vessel size and the nozzle layout and we will tell you what fits.

Why Buy Used

A new glass-lined reactor is a build-to-order item, with lead times measured in months once the size, nozzle layout, and drive package are specified. Glass lining is a furnace process, and the queue for it is the reason those lead times hold. A used vessel of the same size and rating can ship in weeks.

Glass-lined equipment holds up in service better than almost anything else on the used market. The lining is the wear surface, and a vessel that has run clean chemistry can have decades left. Vessels are also reglassed, so a used body is not a fixed asset with a fixed remaining life. That is why the used market for De Dietrich equipment is deep and why buying used here is routine rather than a compromise.

Every unit is inspected when it arrives at our Cleveland, OH facility and is available for customer inspection before purchase. Our shop can perform a spark test of the lining, a jacket test, and a motor test of the agitator. Other refurbishment and testing can be arranged upon request. Process validation for your own material and facility remains with the buyer.

  • Pfaudler: the other major glass-lined reactor builder, and the brand most often cross-shopped against De Dietrich. Drives and agitators from both turn up on each other's vessels.
  • Rosenmund: Nutsche filters and filter-dryers, part of the De Dietrich Process Systems group. Our Rosenmund inventory is listed under its own brand rather than here.
  • Guedu: pan dryers, also part of the De Dietrich Process Systems group and listed separately.
  • Pierre Guerin: fermenters, bioreactors, and pumps for biotechnology work.