Used Pfaudler Equipment

A glass-lined reactor is a steel vessel with a glass coating fused to the wetted surface. It carries the corrosion resistance of glass and the pressure rating of steel. That combination is why glass-lined equipment holds acid service, chlorination, and bromination duty that would attack stainless steel, and why it stays in service for decades in chemical and pharmaceutical plants.

Federal Equipment Company is an independent dealer in used Pfaudler equipment. We buy and sell it outright, and we are not affiliated with the manufacturer. Our Pfaudler inventory runs across glass-lined reactors from 1 to 5,000 gal, Chemstore storage vessels and receivers up to 20,000 gal, glass-lined agitators and drives, tanks and kettles, columns, wiped film evaporators, and the component families that go with them: baffles, plug valves, manway covers, reactor tops, pro rings, and dip pipes.

Most of what we carry is glass-lined, and we also handle Pfaudler vessels in 316 stainless steel, Hastelloy C-22 and C-276, and carbon steel. 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 capacity, the internal and jacket ratings, and the drive size you need. We will look for it across our network.

Sell Your Equipment We buy surplus glass-lined vessels, drives, 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 Pfaudler.

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Equipment We Carry

  • Glass-lined reactors: the core of the Pfaudler line and the largest part of what we stock. Capacities range from 1 to 5,000 gal. Internal ratings run from 12 to 750 psi and full vacuum, with jackets rated separately. Reactor bodies without a drive package come through regularly as well.
  • Glass-lined agitators and agitator drives: retreat curve, Cryolock, turbine, and anchor agitators, plus shafts sized to the vessel. Drive power ranges from 1 to 75 HP, including two-speed drives.
  • Tanks and kettles: Chemstore storage vessels and receivers in vertical and horizontal configurations, up to 20,000 gal, typically rated 30 psi and vacuum for bulk acid and solvent storage.
  • Glass-lined baffles: fin, H, D, and concave baffles matched to reactor capacity.
  • Glass-lined valves: plug valves in handwheel and pneumatic closure, 150 and 300 lb flange, and some with RTD sensors.
  • Glass-lined reactor tops, manway covers, pro rings, and dip pipes: the wetted components that fail or get damaged first on an operating reactor.
  • Columns and towers: glass-lined columns in sectional builds, running to 20-inch diameter by 267-inch straight side.
  • Evaporators: wiped film evaporators from 1.2 to 103.4 sq ft, in 316L stainless steel and Hastelloy C-22.
  • Heat exchangers, including shell and tube: condensers and process exchangers that came out of the same installations.

Models & Series

Pfaudler model codes are worth learning, because they are what buyers search and what the nameplate carries. The pattern is a letter series, the vessel diameter in inches, and the nominal capacity in gallons. KC108-5000 is a 108-inch diameter, 5,000 gal reactor. CV144-20000 is a 144-inch diameter, 20,000 gal receiver.

Reactors. The RX and RT series cover small and pilot-scale vessels, roughly 20 to 150 gal. The RS and KC series cover production sizes from 1,000 to 5,000 gal. Pfaudler Balfour CE series reactors turn up built to metric capacities, with the model number stated in liters.

Receivers and storage vessels. The CV and CVC series are the Chemstore line, the glass-lined bulk storage and receiver tanks that run from about 5,000 gal upward. The CL series covers glass-lined columns.

Agitator drives. Drives are designated by frame size and type: RW, TW, DTW, and SRW. The 2.5 DTW is the most common on small reactors, with 4 RW, 5 RW, 5 DTW, 6 RW, 7 RW, and 10 SRW drives covering the range up through 5,000 gal vessels. A drive can usually be matched to a vessel of a different vintage, which is why the drives and the vessels trade separately.

Glass. Records identify the lining by glass code. Blue 9119 glass is the most common on the units we handle, with 9115, 5015, 4015, and 3315 also appearing. Many reactor records carry a reglassing date and serial number from the manufacturer's own shop, which is one of the first things to check when comparing two units of the same size.

Applications & Industries

  • Chemical processing: the primary home for this equipment. Halogenation, sulfonation, nitration, and acid service where the reaction would attack stainless steel. Glass-lined storage vessels and receivers hold the feedstocks and the product.
  • Pharmaceutical manufacturing: active ingredient synthesis, where a clean, non-reactive, non-catalytic surface matters as much as the corrosion resistance does.
  • Extraction and growing technologies: solvent extraction, winterization, and recovery, where jacketed glass-lined vessels handle both the cold step and the acid cleanup.
  • Food and beverage: acidic and high-salt products that would pit a stainless steel tank, and bulk storage where taste carryover is a concern.
  • Agrochemical and specialty intermediates: batch chemistry at moderate volumes, where a single reactor train gets recipe-changed between campaigns and the lining has to tolerate all of them.

Parts & Components

Reactor components are a large share of this listing, and buyers hunt them separately from vessels. A plant with an operating glass-lined reactor is not shopping for another reactor. It is looking for the one part that failed.

We stock reactor parts across the wetted families: fin, H, D, and concave baffles sized by vessel capacity; glass-lined plug valves in 150 and 300 lb flange with handwheel or pneumatic closure; manway and great covers; reactor tops with and without a drive; pro rings; dip pipes; and thermowells. On the mechanical side we carry agitator shafts, including Cryolock designs, along with gearboxes, seal housings, seal seats, and complete drive assemblies.

Components carry Pfaudler part numbers on the item listings, so a part number search will find the specific record. Tell us the vessel model and capacity if you are matching to an existing reactor, since the same part family is built to several vessel sizes.

Why Buy Used

A new glass-lined reactor is a build-to-order item, with lead times measured in months once the capacity, ratings, glass code, and drive package are specified. A used vessel of the same size and configuration ships in weeks instead, and the component families are interchangeable enough that a partial rebuild is often faster than a new order.

Glass-lined equipment ages well when it has been run properly. The lining either holds or it does not, and it can be inspected. Steel bodies, jackets, and drive trains routinely outlast the plant that installed them, which is why the used market in this equipment is deep and why buying used is routine rather than a compromise. Reglassing is available in the market for a body that is otherwise sound.

Every machine is inspected when it arrives at our Cleveland, OH facility, and it 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.