Used injection moulding machines in 2026: Arburg, Krauss Maffei, and Battenfeld compared

Search "used injection moulding machine" online and three names will crop up no matter where you look: Arburg, Krauss Maffei, and Battenfeld. All three are German or Austrian manufacturers with decades of installed base across Europe, which is exactly why so much of the used market carries their nameplates - these are the machines that were bought new anywhere from the 2000s to the early 2010s and are now, ten to twenty years on, working their second or third job. They are not interchangeable, though. Scroll a category page and half the listings are just titled "Injection Moulding Machine" with the brand tacked on at the end, which flattens three very different machines into one generic-looking row. Each has a different sweet spot, and picking between them has more to do with your part size and output than with brand loyalty.

Arburg: precision, and small-to-mid tonnage

The Allrounder range owns the lower-to-mid clamping force segment, roughly 125-6,500 kN, and it's the machine behind syringe barrels and drug-delivery components, connector housings, and small electronic enclosures - anywhere the tolerances are unforgiving and the parts are small enough that precision matters more than raw clamping force. The Selogica control has been around long enough that a used Allrounder from the 2000s onward is generally well supported for parts and service, and the platform's modularity means a used one can often be reconfigured for a new application rather than retired outright. Small parts, tight tolerances, fast changeovers - Arburg is usually the first thing worth checking. A current example: an Arburg Allrounder 375 V, currently listed, pulled from a laboratory with its plasticising unit barely used - about as close to new condition as used machinery gets.

Krauss Maffei: large-format, and built to run for decades

Krauss Maffei skews big. Clamping forces running into five figures - the GX series alone tops out around 13,000 kN, roughly 1,300 tonnes - aren't unusual, and the two-platen designs are built for heavy parts - car bumpers and dashboards, transport crates and buckets, pallets, and other large industrial housings. If you're moving high shot weights and need serious clamping force without a new-machine budget, a used Krauss Maffei tends to offer more tonnage per euro than buying new, for the simple reason that these machines are engineered to outlast several changes of ownership. A 15-year-old unit with moderate hours on it often has plenty of working life left in it yet. Case in point: a Krauss Maffei KM650/3000CX currently on our site, a 6,500kN two-platen machine with a linear robot attached, doing exactly the large-format work described above.

Battenfeld: the mid-range workhorse

Battenfeld sits in between - a solid choice for general production runs that don't need Arburg's precision or Krauss Maffei's scale. Its hydraulic and hybrid machines show up frequently in the 500-2,000 kN range on the used market - current Wittmann Battenfeld models go considerably larger, but that's not typically what you'll find in a secondhand listing - turning out packaging closures and bottle caps, household goods, and automotive components. One thing worth knowing: the brand has changed ownership more than once over the decades and now sits under the Wittmann Battenfeld group, so it's worth confirming exactly which control generation you're looking at before you buy. Older Battenfeld controls can differ significantly from current-generation units in how easy they are to get parts for. This Battenfeld BK-T 1000/400, listed at 1,000kN, is a fair example of the range.

What actually matters more than the badge on the machine

Whatever the nameplate says, the numbers that determine fit for your job are clamping force, shot weight, screw diameter, and platen or tie-bar spacing for your mould. A used machine from any of these three that matches those four numbers will usually beat a "better brand" machine that's the wrong size for your parts. It's worth checking the control system generation too - an older control can mean a cheaper acquisition, but also a smaller pool of technicians who can actually service it near you.

Automotive is a good illustration of why this matters more than the badge. A single car uses all three machine classes somewhere in its supply chain: connector housings off an Arburg, bumpers and dashboards off a Krauss Maffei, smaller trim and interior components off a Battenfeld. Same industry, same end customer, three different machines - proof that picking between these three brands really is a question of part size and output, not brand loyalty, exactly as it was at the top of this guide.

Where to look

We currently list machines from all three manufacturers - along with Sumitomo Demag, Engel, and others - in our plastics processing machines category, with new listings added daily as brokers bring machines to market. If you already know the specific model you need, search is faster than browsing. And before you commit to anything, our due diligence checklist covers what to ask for and check first.