Terms of Woven Meshes

Crimping

Wires can be crimped to hold them in place or to add strength to the wire. A crimp is an indentation in the wire. Typically, both cross and line wires are crimped. Then, the crimped wires are woven into a cloth.

Weave and crimp are sometimes confused. Keep in mind that the way the wire is woven (i.e., the weave style) is independent of the crimp style. All woven wire mesh has a weave style. If a wire mesh is also crimped, it will have both a weave style and a crimp style.

Wire Diameter

Wire diameter is a measure of the thickness of the wires in the wire mesh. Warp and Weft wires may be the same diameter, or cross or line wires may have a different diameter (typical in wire mesh used for filtration). When possible, please specify wire diameter in decimal inches rather than in wire gauge.

Wire Spacing

Wire spacing is a measure from the center of one wire to the center of the next. If the opening is rectangular, wire spacing will have two dimensions: one for the long side (length) and one for the short side (width) of the opening. For example, wire spacing = 1 inch (length) by 0.4 inch (width) opening.

Wire spacing, when expressed as the number of openings per lineal inch, is called mesh.

Mesh Counts

Mesh is the number of openings per lineal inch. Mesh is always measured from the centers of the wires.

When mesh is greater than one (that is, the openings are greater than 1 inch), mesh is measured in inches. For example, a two-inch (2") mesh is two inches from center to center. Mesh is not the same as opening size.

The difference between 2 mesh and 2-inch mesh is illustrated in the examples in the right column.

Open Area

Wire Mesh contains open spaces (holes) and material. Open area is the total area of the holes divided by the total area of the cloth and is expressed as a percent. In other words, open area describes how much of the wire mesh is open space. If the wire mesh has 60 percent open area, then 60 percent of the cloth is open space and 40 percent is material.

Opening Size

The opening size is measured from the inside edge of one wire to the inside edge of the next wire. For rectangular openings, both an opening length and width is required to define opening size.

Differences between opening size and mesh

The difference between mesh and opening size is how they are measured. Mesh is measured from the centers of the wires while opening size is the clear opening between the wires. A two mesh cloth and a cloth with 1/2 inch (1/2") openings are similar. However, because mesh includes the wires in its measurement, two mesh cloth has smaller openings than a cloth with an opening size of a 1/2 inch.