Only stainless steel materials are used for the production of plate heat exchanger plates. These range from standard steels to high-alloy stainless steels, depending on the media used. The aggressiveness of the respective media determines the plate material.
Different alloying components of the materials, such as chromium, nickel and molybdenum, influence the resistance of the plate materials to aggressive acids, caustics and water containing chloride.
The manufacturers of plate heat exchangers have included different materials as standard in their product range. Some of these materials are described and compared below.