Have you ever wondered about the differences between knitted, woven, welded and expanded mesh? If you have you are not alone. Whether it is the confusing names or the similar appearances is unknown. A lot of people find themselves confused when confronted with which product they need.

Never fear we are about to describe each product in detail and explain the many individual applications for each product.

Knitted Mesh is easily distinguishable from other types of mesh with the knitted appearance. This type of mesh is made up of wire knitted together to form a hive like structure. SMI has 12 knitting machines for the creation of knitted mesh. The product is very versatile in use due to characteristics like being compressible, being able to roll up/ curl and being flexible. These characteristics makes knitted mesh unique and extremely resourceful. Depending on the material knitted mesh is made of, a number of features is associated with knitted mesh namely: strength, durability, rust resistance, high temperature resistance, shielding, long service life, corrosion resistance, acid/alkali resistance, filtration etc.

Common knitted mesh applications are:

  • Liquid-gas filtration in certain industries
  • Mist eliminators or demister pads for mist elimination
  • Filtration in vehicles like engine breathers
  • Shielding mesh for electronics
  • Knitted cleaning balls for mechanical cleaning
  • Vibration muting

These are just a few of the applications of knitted mesh. Using knitted mesh creatively has resulted in reduced theft for truck owners. These trucks were outfitted with knitted mesh underneath the storage cloth to prevent thieves from slashing open the cloth with a knife.

Woven mesh can be described as a weaved structure of wire. The wire moves along a line weaving over one wire and under the next. Woven mesh is mostly used for the purpose of screening. The structure is designed to sift materials – small particles fall through while larger particles stay put. Woven mesh comes in a number of sizes depending on your screening needs. The sizes range from 10 microns to 100×100 mm squares.

Welded mesh has a fencing type of structure. The wire is placed over each other to create square structures and are then spot welded together on both sides of the wire. Applications for welded mesh include fencing, bird cages, screens etc. The sizes for welded mesh can range from 13×13 mm squares to 100×100 mm squares.

Expanded mesh is unique in the way that it is not structured from wire like the previously mentioned meshes. Expanded mesh is made from a plate of steel in which holes are stamped. Like welded mesh the application for expanded mesh include fencing, bird cages, screens etc.

We hope you found the article informative and will now be able to define your wire mesh needs.