Micro Expanded Metal Terminology

A drawing shows SWD, LWD and other useful information.

SWD

(Short Way Dimension) The dimensional (US/Metric) size of the mesh pattern. It Is the length of the short axis way of the diamond, measured from the center of the joint to the center of the joint.

LWD

(Long Way Dimension) The dimensional (US/Metric) size of the mesh pattern. Measured from the center of the joint to the center of the adjacent joint. This dimension is fixed, and is always parallel to the width of the coil and corresponds with the diamond dimension.

SWO

(Short Way Opening) The dimensional (US/Metric) size of the mesh pattern.

LWO

(Long Way Opening) The dimensional size (US/Metric) of the mesh pattern.

Pitch

Another term for (US/ic) SWD

Bond

The intersection where meshes are joined. Sometimes referred to as Knuckle.

Strand Width

Amount and dimensional (US/Metric) length fed between the upper and lower tooling to produce the mesh. The strand width is the amount of metal slit from the parent metal in forming the mesh. This is closely controlled and is directly related to the weight, overall thickness and open area as shown in the above illustration.

Strand Thickness

Material thickness (US/Metric) used to produce standard material which is the raw thickness. It is also the thickness of the material after flattening.

Overall Thickness

Thickness (Height) of the mesh when laid on a flat surface. When the micro expanded metal is flattened (2D) type, strand and overall thickness is the same.

Raised

Same structure with 3D, it is produced through slit and stretch to form a three-dimensional structure with raised bonds.

3D

Another Term of raised micro expanded metal. It has tree-dimensional structure with raised strand. It is the original structure of micro expanded metal.

Flattened

It stands for the micro expanded metal which is flattened from raised expanded metals. It features smooth and flat surface to be used in specific applications.

2D

Flattened micro expanded metal. It is the meshes which is flattened from raised micro expanded metals. It has flat and smooth surface.

A drawing shows how flattened expanded metal produced.

Flat Rolling

Also known as to calendar. Flattening is a secondary process that reduces the overall thickness of the mesh and make the raised micro expanded metal into flattened micro expanded metal.