Expanded metal-Basic terms

Lightweight and strength make expanded metal a highly versatile material that is ideal for partitions, enclosures, barriers, filters, walkways, grilles and machine guards.

Expanded metal terms

SWD: nominal dimension, short way of design

LWD :nominal dimension, long way of design

When recommending to a sheet size the SWD is considered before LWD. For example 4 x 8 sheet means 4 foot in SWD direction and 8 foot dimension in the LWD direction.

SWO : shortway of opening

LWO : longway of opening

Strand thickness: gauge thickness of the base metal

Strand width: Quantity of metal input under dies to produce one strand

Edge configuration: state of an edge of an expanded metal sheet. Normally refers to open or closed diamond edges made from shearing.

Expanding : expanding press simultaneously slits and stretches base material to produce a diamond pattern.

Leveling: expanded metal is often leveled after the expansion process by a leveling roller.

Raised expanded metal as it comes from the press. The strands and bonds are set at a uniform angle to the plane of the sheet. It provides additional strength and rigidity and skidding resistant surface.

Flattened: Expanded metal is cold processed after expansion to offer a smooth, flat and leveled sheet. The flattening process decreases the actual gauge of the base metal and the strand width increases slightly. Some of the heavier expanded metals cannot be flattened.

Shearing:Cutting expanded metal to create different sheet sizes. It can be bond or random sheared. In bond shearing, shear line falls through the bonds. The product received is an edge configuration of all closed diamonds, for bond shearing the resultant dimensions should be in a multiple of the complete 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 essential when the necessary complete dimensions are not a multiple of the whole diamond configuration.

Raised carbon steel expanded mesh