Basics of Wire Mesh

Basics of Wire Mesh

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Introduction

This Article takes an In-depth look at Wire Mesh

You will learn more about topics such as:

• Basics of Wire Mesh
• Wire Used to Make Wire Mesh
• Uses for Wire Mesh
• The Benefits of Wire Mesh

Basics of Wire Mesh

Wire mesh is made by intertwining, weaving, or welding wires of various thicknesses to form uniform parallel rows and crosswise columns. Known by different names such as wire fabric, wire cloth, or hardware mesh, its production includes the weaving of wire on industrial looms to create square or rectangular spaces between the wires. Welded wire mesh involves using an electric welder to connect parallel wires at the intersections where they cross.

Wire mesh comes in an array of shapes, sizes, and configurations made from robust and resilient materials, serving to separate, screen, structure, and protect different applications. The types of wires used for wire mesh include galvanized steel, stainless steel, aluminum, steel, and copper alloy. Factors like application type, required tensile strength, durability, lifespan, and necessary flexibility help determine the chosen wire type and style.

How Wire Mesh is Made

The processes used to produce wire mesh are weaving and welding, with wire weaving being similar to the weaving of cloth on a loom, while welding is used to join the wires where they intersect. Both processes are completed using pre-programmed machines.

Wire Weaving

Near the end of the 17th century, woven wire cloth for the mining and pulp industries came into high demand, leading to the development of wire weaving looms. Over the centuries, the use of wire mesh has advanced beyond mines and pulp mills to architecture, plastic extrusion, aggregate screening, and filtration processing. The rise in demand has led to the modern industrial wire weaving industry.

• Weaving Loom — Weaving looms weave mesh rolls with widths of 48”, 60”, 72”, 98”, or wider. The loom has a warp beam, heddle frames, a reed, a rapier for transporting weft wire, and a take-up mechanism.

  Manufacturers use looms to weave meshes of standard and custom patterns. The completed mesh rolls are cut to varying lengths depending on the needs of customer specifications. Wires woven horizontally or lengthwise are warp wires, while wires woven vertically or crosswise are referred to as weft wires or shute wires, terms commonly used in textile manufacturing.

• Warp Beam — The warp beam is a cylindrical drum wrapped with the warp wires. The warp beam's tension must be meticulously controlled to avoid elongation of the woven mesh. The number of warp wires varies depending on the mesh width and must be kept the same length.
• Heddle Frames — The heddle frames separate the wires that are fed by the warp beam. Most looms have two heddle frames, with one used to lift half of the warp wires while the other pulls the warp wires down. The heddle frames change position as the weft wires move across the warp wires.
• Rapier Band — The weft wires are carried across the full width of the cloth by the rapier at each cycle of the heddle frame. It feeds a single weft wire between the sets of warp wires.
• Reed — The reed keeps the warp wires from the warp beam in place and accurately spaced and separated. Once the weft wire moves across the warp wires, the reed beats the weft wires tightly in place in the wire cloth.
• Take-Up — The take-up mechanism is a set of rollers that takes the fabric away from the loom with a pickup roller and two other rollers that work together to wind the cloth to the cloth roller. The fabric is wound in single layers with a smooth flat surface created by it being passed through the set of rollers.

Once the loom has been assembled and the warp beam loaded, the weaving process is completed automatically. As the loom begins, the warp beam unwinds in slow, even increments. In unison with the warp beam feeding the warp wire, the take-up mechanism winds the woven completed cloth in the same increments as the warp beam. The synchronized motion helps the loom maintain tension on the warp wires, which is a critical necessity for the production of high-quality cloth.

Welded Wire Mesh

Wire mesh is welded using a semi-automatic process that welds the intersections of the woven wires. Welding machines are programmed to weld the intersections at the horizontal and vertical aligned wires. Several welding techniques are used to join the connections, including resistance welding, tungsten inert gas (TIG) welding, plasma welding, and soldering.

• Weld Mesh Machine — The process of wire mesh welding begins with feeding wires into a weld mesh machine, which is much like the heddle frames and reeds of wire weaving.
• Wire Spools — Separate spools of wire are fed through a straightener. Pre-cut wires that match the dimensions of the wire mesh are placed separately from the wires fed from the spools. Since the wires are coming off spools, whether pre-cut or fed from them, they are mechanically straightened to lay flat on the welding surface.
• Mechanical Placement — The pre-cut wires are laid flat across the wires being fed from the spools. The wires are perpendicular to each other at right angles in mesh welding.
• Welding — Once the wires are positioned, the programmed welding process begins and applies a uniform weld at each cross-section.
• Process Completion — The collection of the final wire mesh from the welding process can be in rolls, like wire weaving, or sheets that are trimmed to size and placed in piles of wire mesh panels.

Welded mesh is heavier, sturdier, and stronger than woven wire mesh and can only be used with thicker wires that are capable of withstanding the welding process. Since the wire is welded, it is more rigid and durable, which makes it ideal for fencing, cages, and concrete mesh sheets.

Types of Wire Mesh

The different kinds of wire mesh are classified by how they were made, their qualities, function, and weave patterns. Each of the various types is designed to meet the strength, weight, and finish requirements of a project or application. The determining factors regarding the type of wire mesh that will be used are its finish, type of metal, and type of pattern, with finish and metal being the major determining factors.

Welded Wire Mesh

Welded wire mesh has square-shaped wire patterns. The welding process forms a strong mesh, which makes it perfect for security fencing, storage and racking in warehouses, storage lockers, animal holding areas in veterinary clinics and animal shelters, room divisions, and traps for pests.

Welded wire mesh is:

1. Durable and capable of withstanding changes in weather
2. Held securely and firmly in place without creep or shifting
3. Customizable to fit any dimensional needs or specifications

When welded wire mesh is made from stainless steel, it has stainless steel’s durability and corrosion resistance.

Galvanized Wire Mesh

Galvanized wire mesh is made from plain or carbon steel wire that is galvanized, a process that involves applying a zinc coating. The zinc layer acts as a shield that protects the wire mesh against rust and corrosion. Galvanized wire mesh can be welded or woven using galvanized wire or plain steel wire that is galvanized after being woven or welded. Of the two processes, galvanizing the wire mesh after it is processed initially costs more but produces a higher-quality wire mesh.

Galvanized wire mesh is ideal for fencing for agriculture and gardening, greenhouse, architecture, building and construction, security, window guards, and infill panels. Due to its cost, it is one of the more widely used of the different types of wire mesh.

Vinyl-Coated Wire Mesh

The application of a vinyl coating to welded or woven wire mesh creates a strong barrier for very flexible wire mesh. Vinyl-coated wire mesh is stable over a wide range of temperatures, is not degraded by exposure to the sun, and is resistant to scrapes, abrasions, and impact.

The vinyl coating of wire mesh gives the impression that the mesh is made of plastic and is sometimes referred to as plastic mesh. Aside from giving wire mesh an appealing appearance, vinyl-coated wire mesh is long-lasting, durable, and rust- and corrosion-resistant. It seals the wires from water and other intrusive elements.

Welded Steel Bar Gratings

Welded steel bar gratings are produced by forge welding at extremely high temperatures. In this process, perpendicular bars are drawn across a parallel series of rectangular bars, connecting the bars together. The process creates a fused, long-lasting connection that can withstand the most demanding and hazardous conditions. The steel for welded steel bar gratings is carbon steel or stainless steel and is exceptionally durable, strong, and rigid.

Designed to carry heavy workloads for many years, welded steel bar grating is used for landing mats, bridge decking, ventilation grills, ramps, sidewalks, and industrial flooring. Panels are produced in two to three-foot widths in two-foot lengths in a wide range of bar sizes, from 1” to 6” depths and 0.25” up to 0.50” thicknesses.

Stainless Steel Wire Mesh

Stainless steel wire mesh has all of the positive properties of stainless steel and provides high-quality protection and performance. Steel is widely used to produce wire mesh but rusts easily when exposed to the air. Stainless steel, which has the same compounds as steel, has chromium added that is rust-resistant and protects stainless steel from oxidation.

In wire mesh manufacturing, stainless steel is known for its reliability, sturdiness, and durability. The rust resistance of stainless steel makes it adaptable to any outdoor application. It consistently delivers strength and longevity, making it the most popular wire mesh form.

As with all forms of wire mesh, stainless steel can be welded or woven. The grades of stainless steel used to produce wire mesh are 304, 304L, 316, 316L, 321, 347, or 430 in wire diameters ranging from 0.0085 inch (0.216 mm) up to 0.307 inch (7.8 mm). The openings of wire mesh change in accordance with the type of wire mesh. Openings that are less than 0.25 inch (6.35 mm) are classified as wire cloth. Critical factors for wire mesh are the percent of the open area and the weight of the mesh.

Grade 316 stainless steel is a premium alloy that is used for marine applications. It has exceptional corrosion resistance and is not affected by acids, salt water, or seawater, and comes in fine, medium, or coarse sizes. Stainless steel grade 304 is not as corrosion resistant as grade 316 but is exceptionally workable and less expensive than grade 316.

Wire Mesh Patterns

The pattern of wire mesh determines its capacity and how it can be used. There are an endless number of standard weave patterns and customized ones designed to fit a specific application. One distinction between the various patterns is whether the wire is crimped or not crimped, with crimping mechanically changing the contour of the weft or warp wires.

Crimped Wire Mesh

Crimped wire mesh is a square or rectangular weave that is woven using a crimping mesh machine. The processes used to produce crimped wire mesh involve compressing the wire such that the weft wire wraps over the warp wire and the warp wire wraps over the weft wire. The crimping process produces a bending effect on the wires such that they wrap over each other.

• Pre-Crimp — Pre-crimped weaves are crimped with small folds or ridges that are added before the wire is woven to increase the strength and rigidity of the wire mesh. The process prevents the weft and warp wires from moving and keeps them secure.
• Lock Crimp — Lock crimp is another pre-crimp process that uses the grooves from the crimping process to lock the weave together at the intersections of the weft and warp wires. As with pre-crimping, the final weave is sturdier and immovable.
• Inter-Crimp — With inter-crimp, the warp and weft wires are crimped with additional crimps added between the intersections. It is a process used with fine wire with large openings to ensure the weft and warp wires are accurately and properly locked to provide additional rigidity.

Non-Crimped Wire

Non-crimped wire refers to plain wire mesh where the wire mesh is formed by a simple over-under weave of the warp and weft wires. The final product has a simple appearance with a smooth, even surface. Traditionally, non-crimped wire or plain wire has a higher mesh count.

Plain weave wire mesh is the most common of the wire mesh products. Wire mesh that has a 3 x 3 or finer wave has a plain weave pattern. It is commonly used for screening, such as screen doors and window screens.

Double Weave Wire Mesh

Double weave wire mesh is a variation of the pre-crimped weave pattern. In the weaving process, the warp wires pass over and under two weft wires to form a wire mesh pattern capable of withstanding stressful and demanding uses. The double weave wire mesh pattern produces a wire mesh with extra durability for supporting vibrating screens in mining operations and crushers, fences for farming, and screens for barbecue pits.

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Flat Top Weave Wire Mesh

Flat top weave has non-crimped warp wires and crimped weft wires that create a sturdy, lockable wire mesh with a flat surface. It has a long abrasive life since no wires project from the top of the mesh to wear. Flat top weave wire mesh has little flow resistance, making it popular for architectural and structural applications requiring a smooth surface. A common application for flat top weaves is for vibrating screens.

Twill Weave Wire Mesh

The twill weave pattern is ideal for weaving heavier and larger diameter wires. The pattern is formed by weaving warp wires over and under two weft wires or where a weft wire passes over and under two warp wires. The warp wire is inverted at the intersections to create a highly stable, rigid, and strong wire mesh. As the pattern develops, it becomes staggered, giving an appearance of parallel diagonal lines.

Twill weave wire mesh can support heavier loads and perform fine filtering. It is a basic component of the production of filters, colanders for aliments, chemical production, shielding, and mosquito nets. For filtering processes, it is made of stainless steel grades 304 and 316 due to their resistance to acids and wear.

Dutch Weave Wire Mesh

Dutch weave is different from plain weave wire mesh and twill weave wire mesh. In dutch weave wire mesh, the weft wires have a different diameter than the warp wires, with the warp wires being coarser to supply greater tensile strength. Weft wires are finer with smaller diameters to enhance filtering performance. The increased strength and finer openings make dutch weave wire mesh popular as a filtering cloth.

The dutch weaving process can be plain or twill, each of which has individual characteristics to fit the needs of different applications.

• Plain Dutch Weave Wire Mesh — Plain dutch weave combines the dutch weave process with plain wire weave. Using two different diameter wires, the coarse warp wire passes over and under the weft wire while the weft wire passes over and under the warp wire. The main advantages of plain dutch weave wire mesh are mechanical stability, finer wire openings, and exceptionally high tensile strength.

  
  

• Twill Dutch Weave Wire Mesh — Twill dutch weave is a combination of regular twill weave and dutch weave. The weft wire alternately passes over and under two warp wires creating a fine mesh in the direction of the warp wire, with the warp wires forming a coarser mesh in the same weave. Twill dutch weave is superior to normal twill weave due to the finer openings and the ability to support heavier loads for filtering applications.

  The advantages of twill dutch weave wire mesh are its better filtering potential, tensile strength,