Metal Peeling for Production of Stainless Steel Foil for Gas Turbine Regenerators

Heat exchanger materials are a significant part of the cost of the regenerative gas turbine engine. This is especially true of the metal regenerator because of the price premiums for stainless steel foil. To circumvent high foil costs, General Motors Corp. has devised a foil production process called metal peeling. The process consists of cutting a thin metal chip from a large metal billet. Peeled foil is low cost because capital equipment costs are low, less labor is involved, and costly in-process heat treatments are not required.