Industrial sourcing · China to Europe

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Buyer guide · Lab & process

Stainless steel reactor vessel from China

The steel is rarely the problem; the pressure paperwork is, because a vessel or jacket built to a Chinese code without a Pressure Equipment Directive file may not be allowed to run in your plant at all.

Ask about this machine ↗Where the numbers come from

Written and listings checked 30 September 2026. Every figure on this page names its source.

What you are actually comparing.

Two quotes, one machine name

What hides inside the price

Design pressure and temperature, vessel and jacket

Ask both chambers separately. A jacket carrying steam or thermal oil is a pressure chamber too, and it is often the part left out of the calculation.

Steel grade and finish

304 or 316L, stated on material certificates, and the internal surface finish as a roughness value. Chlorides and acids decide the grade; hygiene rules decide the finish.

Heating and cooling

Electric heating through a thermal oil jacket, steam or water jackets, half-pipe coils, or internal coils. Ask heat-up and cool-down times for your batch, not only heater kilowatts.

Agitator and seal

Anchor, turbine or frame agitators suit different viscosities. Packing glands, single or double mechanical seals, or magnetic drives set how much leaks and what you can hold under vacuum or pressure.

Nozzles and instruments

Count ports for charging, sampling, relief, temperature and pressure. A safety valve and bursting disc sized for your process are rarely included by default.

Before you ask for a price.

Send these with the enquiry. Without them, any number a factory gives you is a guess dressed as a quotation.

Working volume and total volume, and the minimum batch you must agitate.
Process pressure and vacuum, temperature range, and the heating medium you have.
Chemicals in the batch, including chlorides, and whether any are flammable.
Viscosity range through the batch, for agitator sizing.
Whether the product is food, cosmetic or a medicine made under EU GMP.

Turn the claim into a demonstration.

Require this	A pass looks like
Witness the hydrostatic test of vessel and jacket, at the pressure and hold time on the drawing.	Pressure held for the full time with no leak or visible deformation, signed test report tied to the serial number.
Heat and cool a water batch at your working volume with the quoted heating system.	Heat-up and cool-down times inside the figures written into the order.
Run the agitator at full speed under vacuum.	Vacuum holds within the stated leak figure and the seal shows no drip.

The documents that must arrive with it.

Pressure Equipment Directive 2014/68/EU Declaration of Conformity, with the notified body number where the vessel category requires one.
Material certificates for pressure parts traceable to heat numbers, welding procedures and welder qualifications, and the pressure test report.
Machinery Declaration of Conformity for the agitated assembly: 2006/42/EC until 19 January 2027, then Regulation (EU) 2023/1230, plus ATEX 2014/34/EU where flammable material is handled.

The one people forget. The design calculation and material certificates in a form your national pressure inspector accepts. Many countries require periodic inspection, and the inspector starts from those papers.

When this is the wrong machine.

Buy something else if

Named, not hedged

You run small lab batches and need to see the reaction, or the chemistry attacks stainless steel.

A jacketed glass reactor, sized in litres, with PTFE seals.

The product is a heavy paste that must be mixed, not reacted.

A planetary mixer, which moves stiff material a reactor agitator cannot.

Where the numbers come from.

We name the kind of source, how many and when, and never the factory. Listed prices are asking prices, not landed cost. Where we do not hold a fact we say so: that is a GAP, not an estimate.

Listings · 11Eleven marketplace listings for Chinese stainless steel reactors, checked September 2026, ran from US$15 for small hydrothermal autoclaves to US$700,000 for magnetic-drive pressure reactors. Asking prices, not landed cost.
Listings · 1One listing, checked September 2026, offered sizes from 10 L to 50,000 L under a single price band, which shows the listed price is not tied to a size.
GAPGAP - no supplier quotations logged for this machine yet. Three to five quotations for one configuration would give a real price spread.

Related machines.

Planetary mixer. Pick a planetary mixer when the job is stiff paste mixing without pressure.
Rotary evaporator. Pick a rotary evaporator when you only need to strip solvent from a finished batch.

Every machine we source in this area is on the Lab & process page. How a project runs, stage by stage, is on how it works, and what it costs is on pricing.

Straight answers

Questions buyers ask about this machine.

Chinese vs European stainless steel reactor vessel: what differs?+

Pressure design code and the paperwork behind it, weld quality, internal finish and seal choice. A cheaper vessel that cannot be registered in your country is the most expensive one.

What goes on a stainless steel reactor vessel inspection checklist?+

Nameplate against drawings, material certificates against heat numbers, weld appearance, internal finish, witnessed pressure test, safety devices, agitator and seal run.

What CE documentation does a stainless steel reactor vessel need?+

A Pressure Equipment Directive file for the vessel where it exceeds 0.5 bar, a machinery declaration for the agitated assembly, and ATEX where relevant.

Who is the EU importer of a stainless steel reactor vessel?+

The business placing it on the EU market, usually the buyer importing direct. Your name goes on the vessel or its papers, and you check both conformity files.

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