Types of Wire Cloth Weaves and Crimps: When to Specify Each

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You can use wire cloth in many industries, from aerospace engineering to radio and microwave production. Also called wire mesh or wire fabric, this solution can filter materials, shield employees from hazards, insulate and much more.

Wire cloth is available in different styles, each with its own advantages. Here is a basic overview of wire cloth types.

Differences Between Welded and Woven Wire Cloth

There are two major types of wire cloth &#; woven and welded. Each product type is produced differently, presenting different benefits depending on the reason for the material. You can use both in a variety of applications and industries.

Welded Wire Cloth

Welded wire mesh is a highly durable material, often used for fencing or caging purposes. During construction, welded wire cloth is permanently welded at all intersections. This method makes the cloth rigid, holding a consistent shape during use. For industrial applications, welded wire maintains its shape, allowing it to fit precisely into structures and components without difficulties.

Here are the key features of welded wire cloth:

• Applications: Many industries use welded wire cloth. Its high strength makes it a popular option for fencing and other barriers. Welded wire cloth is commonly used in industrial, agricultural and transportation fields, and it may also be used for air reduction in vents. Welded mesh is available in many different materials, including stainless steel and carbon steel. It can be made with heavy-gauge wire to a 0.025-inch-diameter wire, making it versatile for different uses.
• Advantages: Due to the nature of its shape, welded wire mesh can achieve higher strengths using thinner wires. The cloth also has a higher percentage of open area.
• Disadvantages: Welded wire cloth with particularly large openings might need to be custom manufactured, but most sizes are still available off the shelf. Similarly, due to the nature of production welded wire cloth cannot be made in fine mesh counts.

Woven Wire Cloth

This material consists of a series of metal wires interlaced to make a sheet of wire cloth. Instead of being welded together like welded mesh, woven wire is interlaced together. Wires can be woven together into particular diameters or patterns. The woven nature allows for more flexibility.

Features of woven wire cloth to know include:

• Applications: You can make woven wire cloth out of steel, stainless steel, aluminum, brass, copper alloys and more. You can shape these materials in a variety of ways. Woven wire cloth is utilized in air filtration, baskets, doors and many other industries.
• Advantages: In woven wire cloth, the openings can be much finer than in welded fabric. This makes it a great option for installations like filters or insect screens. Woven wire cloth is also extremely durable and can hold high weights.
• Disadvantages: Some types of woven wire mesh could become unraveled on the ends, but you can avoid this with wire weaving techniques that offer high rigidity.

Different Types of Wire Weaving

If you select woven wire fabric, many types of weaves are available. Each style varies by mesh count, wire diameter specifications and the number of openings.

Here are two of the most common types of wire mesh patterns:

• Plain weave: The plain weave is the most common type. It consists of same-sized diameter wires in a simple over-and-under pattern. The identical design creates the same amount of mesh openings in all directions.
• Twill or Dutch weave: A twill weave is slightly more complicated than a plain weave, with each wire passing over and under two wires. This structure makes the twill weave more durable and available for larger diameters.

Types of Woven Wire Crimp Styles

Woven wire often uses a method known as crimping either before or during creation. If the mesh&#;s diameter is too big or too small, specialists crimp the wires before weaving. They send the wires through a crimper, and it individually shapes them so they can rest securely against one another. Crimped wire mesh makes the wire fabric stronger and more rigid.

Here are a few of the crimp styles available for wires:

• Lock crimp: The lock crimp is a more modern style. It consists of straight sections of wires, where each wire is crimped at each intersection. Lock crimp wire mesh creates an aesthetically pleasing pattern and is also very stable.
• Double intermediate crimp: A double intermediate crimp forms a square-like pattern with wires of equal size. They pass over and under one another at adjacent intersections with equal lengths.
• Intercrimp: An intercrimp style uses intersecting wires at every other intersection. For example, wires might intersect at the third intersection, the fifth intersection and so on. This style provides high rigidity and is popular in architecture.
• Flat top: A flat top crimping style is similar to a lock crimp wire cloth, but all crimps are offset to one side. This design creates a flat appearance on the front, making it ideal for materials to flow smoothly across it. It&#;s also commonly used in architecture.

How to Match Weave and Crimp Style

By matching your crimp and mesh weaving style, you can create an optimized woven wire cloth. The right combination of weaving and crimping styles can make your wire mesh more sturdy or flexible. But with all the crimping options and wire cloth terms, it&#;s sometimes tricky to know which style fits you best.

Here are three considerations for picking your weave and crimp styles:

1. Wire Diameter

The wire diameter is the width of each wire. The diameter directly effects how much open space exists between wires.

You can choose diameter according to what conditions your wire will face. For instance, if your wire will mostly encounter small amounts of sand, you wouldn&#;t need an extremely thick diameter. Usually, the thicker and stronger your wire is, the more you avoid future fixes and replacements.

2. Mesh Count

Your wire&#;s mesh count is the number of openings within an inch. So, if you have a 300 mesh wire, there are 300 openings within one inch in any direction of the wire. When selecting mesh count, consider how many materials will pass through your wire and how many of those you want to block.

If you choose the wrong mesh count, unwanted materials or substances might reach underneath surfaces. Or, too many substances might build up on your mesh because they can&#;t pass through.

3. Micron Rating

A micron rating is a precise distance between your wires. Once you determine your diameter and mesh count, you can decide upon the best micron rating for your wire&#;s purposes. People often use micron ratings for wire mesh meant for filtration. The correct micron measurement allows for proper filtration while maintaining a consistent substance flow.

Order Woven Wire Cloth to Your Specifications

Whether you need wire mesh for filtering materials or handling sensitive liquids, Argus Steel is here for you. A leader in the metals industry, Argus Steel has provided premier materials since . Our specialty wire cloths are available in many different materials and meet any requirement. We offer durable and high-quality wire cloth, no matter what use you have in mind.

Request a quote from Argus Steel today to get started with a leading steel wire distributor. No job is too big or too small for us, and we look forward to finding you the best wire cloth fit.

The flexibility and durability of wire cloth makes it a versatile product. From the food and beverage production industry to automotive, pharmaceutical, and medical sectors, metal mesh is being increasingly used across multiple industries. 

As there is a surge in the use of wire cloth, mesh products have grown into various types, standards, and patterns catering to the industry-specific demand. The production has become exceptionally sophisticated with the invention of new molecular diffusion-bonding and lamination technologies. Depending on required materials and pore sizes, one can find the exact wire mesh material they need. 

Each of these wire mesh products varies based on applications, the number of laminated layers, and mechanical properties, in addition to the fabrication process. Technical and metallurgical considerations add to the growing diversity that demands careful and need-specific selection of wire cloth. Here is a guide on different types of metal mesh products, their significance, and how to select the right product for your application. 

Wire Mesh: What and How

Wire mesh refers to a metal net or screen of attached or woven strands formed by intersecting strands of wire. Stainless steel, copper, aluminum, brass, and bronze are the most popular metals used to produce wire mesh filters used for screening, structuring, and shielding. A filter made from sintered wire cloth is the best choice since sintering enables bonding at the molecular level and leads to laminated layers of woven wire. 

Want more information on Double Crimped Wire Mesh? Feel free to contact us.

There are two major ways of manufacturing metal mesh &#; weaving and welding. Woven wire mesh is created when metal wires are woven into a web of intersected wires. It follows the pattern of one perpendicular wire woven over and under another wire. This pattern creates a web of mesh wire. Welded wire mesh, on the other hand, is produced when metal wires are put in rows and columns as per the size of the required pores and then are welded at the intersection. 

Wire Mesh: Types, Significance and Use

Whether meant for domestic or industrial use, sintered wire cloth comes with varying types of coarseness, weight, and aperture. Different types of sintered wire cloth have unique features, patterns, qualities, and functionalities.

Stainless Steel Wire Mesh &#; Prepared from steel or iron-nickel alloy, this type of metal mesh is strong, sturdy, and reliable. Stainless steel wire mesh can have extremely low-variant but very stable pores. It comes in both high-carbon and low-carbon variants and is available in various patterns. Sintered wire cloth of steel is the best suitable for extremely corrosive or high-temperature environments and outdoor applications. Steel wire mesh filters are widely used in separation technology, architecture, and heat conditioning.

Aluminum Wire Mesh &#; Aluminum wire mesh is often chosen for its relative affordability compared to other metals, as well as for its low weight compared to steel or stainless steel. Aluminum wire mesh is about a third of the weight of a stainless steel mesh with the same specifications, which can make it useful in the creation of items like personal audio headsets where low weight is critical.

Plain Weave Sintered Square Woven Wire Mesh &#; This type of sintered wire mesh laminate is made by sintering multiple layers of plain weave square woven wire mesh together. Because of the large open area percentages of the square woven wire mesh layers, this type of sintered wire mesh laminate has good permeability characteristics and low resistance to flow. This type of sintered wire mesh laminate is useful for polymer production, as well as a variety of fluid and air filtration applications.

Dutch Woven Sintered Wire Mesh &#; Wires of different diameters are used and pushed closer to each other to achieve a sintered wire mesh cloth of the highest density. These can be either plain or twill weave wire mesh. When made from sintered metals, the Dutch pattern produces more rigidity and tensile strength. The closer wire placement means a higher particle retention capability up to 10 micrometers. Dutch woven sintered wire mesh is used for very fine filtration applications and the making of protection chassis, enclosures, and boxes. The absence of openings allows this sintered wire cloth type to make the best water, air, fuel, plastic processing, and hydraulic filters.  

5-Layer Sintered Wire Mesh &#; 5-layer sintered wire mesh is created when a single layer of fine woven wire mesh is placed between two layers of coarser square woven meshes. It is then added to two layers of a strong Dutch woven wire mesh and sintered together to form a strong plate. The single layer of fine woven wire mesh acts as the filtration layer, and can be customized to meet a particular filtration rating, ranging from 1 micron to 200 microns.

Double Weave Wire Mesh &#; A variant of the pre-crimped weave pattern, double weave wire mesh derives its name from its manufacturing process. Two wrap wires run over and under two weft wires making this type of wire mesh robust to withstand high-intensity tasks. Double weave sintered wire cloth is the top choice for vibrating screens of conveyor belts, mining filters, and crushers. Barbecues also utilize this wire mesh.

Epoxy Coated Wire Mesh &#; Epoxy coated wire mesh can be used in a variety of filtering applications and as a support or for pleat spacing in filters. Door and insect screens are oftentimes produced using epoxy coated wire mesh.  The epoxy coating can be applied to plain steel, aluminum, or stainless steel wire mesh.

Tips To Select The Best Wire Mesh

While buying metal mesh, one must consider the following points.

• The purpose for which you need wire mesh. Each type has its advantages and disadvantages for

  various applications.

• The fabrication process is another important area to look at. This impacts the durability, structural rigidity, and tensile strength of a wire mesh.

• Pore size and pattern is important based on industry-specific filtration needs. For example, the Dutch pattern enables much higher precision filtration of particles compared to other variants.

• Sintered metal or

  alloy

  plays a role too in selections based on temperature, environment, and nature of the application. Non-corrosive metals are a must if it is mining, oil, or water industry. At locations with extreme temperatures, metals need to be highly resistant to corrosion. 

• The choice of sintered metals should also consider the potential presence of contaminants in the filtering process.

Contact Lawrence Sintered Metals for Wire Mesh

Lawrence Sintered Metals makes the best-quality and budget-friendly sintered wire cloth suitable for a range of applications. Contact us to learn more about our wire mesh and the applications it can be used for. 

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