Construction Decorative Expanded Metal Wire Mesh Solid Sheets Fine Workmanship

Construction Expanded metal mesh with fine workmanship for decoration

Expanded metal is sometimes considered an alternative to sheet metal or wire mesh. It combines some of the best features of both—providing a material that is stronger than thin wire mesh and has better air flow and drainage than sheet metal. In fact, it's an excellent option for custom wire baskets that need more tensile strength than wires can provide. Additionally, expanded metal cuts down on the need for extra welding operations compared to using individual steel wires, making it faster and easier to complete sturdy baskets.

Overall, stainless steel expanded metal baskets are incredibly tough and versatile—especially when made of highly-resistant metal alloys such as grade 316 stainless steel. They’ve got a variety of uses across just about every industry Marlin Steel works with and, for that reason, it’s worth exploring.

In bond shearing, the shear line falls through the bonds. The result is an edge configuration of all closed diamonds. For bond shearing the resultant dimensions must be in a multiple of the full diamond dimensions.

In random shearing, the shear line falls at random points on the mesh pattern. Edges are open and diamonds are not matched. Random shearing is necessary when the required overall dimensions are not a multiple of the full diamond dimensions.

Expanded metal is manufactured by slitting and stretching (expanding) the metal sheet with a die creating diamond / hexagonal shaped holes in one step. The connecting metal strands are called bonds that are lie on top of each other creating a raised effect.Raised expanded metals are also called “regular” or “standard” expanded metal.

What is Expanded Metal Mesh?

Stainless steel expanded metal mesh is made of a single solid sheet of compressed and stretched material. The expanded metal grating is useful for heavyweight custom parts washing applications, as well as providing open space for air flow and drainage.

Types of Expanded Metal Mesh

There are two distinct varieties of expanded stainless steel mesh used for baskets: standard and flattened. The term “standard expanded metal” refers to the metal as it comes out of the expanding machine. On the other hand, flattened expanded metal is what happens when standard expanded metal is put through a cold rolling steel mill to flatten the expanded stainless steel mesh.

Here is a brief list of useful stainless steel expanded metal terms:

• Strands. This is the term for the solid metal portions of the expanded metal grating. In the diagram at the top of the article, the strands are 0.107" wide.
• Bonds. This is the term for intersections of strands.
• Short Way of Design (SWD). The distance between the centers of bond strands in the mesh when measured along the short diamond diagonal. To illustrate this, in a diamond pattern shape like “<>,” the SWD would be measured from top to bottom. In the diagram above, the SWD would be approximately 0.372" (0.265" SWO plus 0.107" of strand thickness).
• Long Way of Design (LWD). The distance between the centers of bond strands in the mesh when measured along the long diamond diagonal. In a diamond pattern shape “<>,” LWD would be measured from right to left. In the diagram above, the LWD would be approximately 1.107" (1" LWO plus 0.107" of strand thickness).
• Short Way of Opening (SWO). The distance between the inside edges between bonds when measured across the short diamond diagonal. The difference from SWD is that SWO measures open space, while SWD measures the space from the center of one bond strand to the next. In the diagram above, the SWO would be 0.265".
• Long Way of Opening (LWO). The distance between the inside edges between bond strands when measured across the long diamond diagonal. Like with SWO, the difference between LWO and LWD is that LWO measures open space only, while LWD measures to the center of a bond strand. In the diagram above, the LWO would be 1".

EXPANDED MESH TERMINOLOGY AND TYPES

Measuring Expanded Metal Mesh

When measuring expanded stainless steel metal mesh, it’s important to consider the overall size of the metal plate after it is expanded, its long and short way of opening, and its strand thickness and width. This is because each of these factors will affect the basket’s performance.

For example, larger LWOs and SWOs mean the holes in the mesh are larger, which improves air flow for the expanded stainless steel mesh basket. On the other hand, thicker and wider strands tend to be stronger than thinner strands.

Comparing LWO and SWO against LWD and SWD helps to confirm the width of metal strands and overall open space of the mesh. For example, if the SWD and LWD of the mesh is 0.5” and 1”, and the SWO and LWO is 0.4” and 0.8”, then the width of the bond should be approximately 0.2” x 0.4”. This would provide a strand width of 0.1”. This would also create an open space of roughly 0.5 inches squared for each opening in the mesh.

Expanded Metal Mesh Uses

As noted above, stainless steel expanded metal mesh has a wide variety of applications across several industries. Some applications companies have used these incredibly tough and resilient baskets include:

Mainly Characteristics:

Light weight, robust and fire resistant

Handling and construction are easy.

Significant slip-stopping effect

Economical prices and maintenance costs

Very beautiful appearance

Expanded metal is a one-piece metallic mesh without any welds, that reflects a series of uniform openings in diamond shapes. It’s main applications are:

Machine and window guards

Outdoor furniture

Architectural elements

Security walls and doors

Platforms and industrial flooring

Balcony railings

Space dividers

Display racks

Filters

Utility trailers

Fencing Signs

Shelving

Strainers

Grilles

Containers

Bird and animal cages

Application:

Expended metal mesh can be widely used in including the protection of machinery equipment, handicraft manufacturing, shelves, heavy machinery,work

platforms, walkways,ships as well as other areas.