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Technical Reference
Wire Cloth Definitions

Calendar – to flatten the intersection high points by passing the wire cloth between heavy rollers, giving the material a smooth calendar to reduce wear on lighter, fine mesh material.

Crimp – corrugations in the wire of woven wire cloth to lock the wire in place.

Crimp, Double – crimps at points of intersection in both warp and shute wires to lock the wire into position.

Double Crimp

Crimp, Inter or Intermediate – use mostly in coarse-woven light wire, additional crimp equally between the normal crimps at intersections, formed in the wires before weaving. Also called “Multi-Crimp.”

Intermediate Crimp

Filter Cloth – wire cloth used for filtration and straining. It includes primarily plain and twilled Dutch Wire Cloth and certain specifications of square-mesh and off-count standard wire cloth.

Hardware Cloth – plain weave square-mesh wire cloth of an inexpensive grade, made of relatively light wire and galvanized after weaving. The mesh is generally between two and eight (openings per lineal inch).

Market Grade – mesh with a wire diameter that is normally woven and stocked for general purpose work.

Mesh – the number of openings per lineal inch in wire cloth, measured from the center of the wire to the center of the wire. “Mesh” is also another name of wire cloth.

Mesh, Off-Count – plain or twilled weave with a greater number of wires in one (usually the shute) direction. (100 x 90, 60 x 40, etc.). It has a greater percentage of open area and flow rate than square mesh cloth and is normally more economical for a given application.

Mesh, Square – mesh with equal spacing of warp and shute to give square openings.

Micron – 1/1000 millimeter; 0.0000393701 inch; represented by the Greek letter mu (m). It is the unit of measure for particle retention of filter media.

Open Area – The ratio of the area of the open spaces between the wires to the total area of a piece of wire cloth; expressed as a percentage. (See Formulas below.)

Opening – the dimension between adjacent parallel wires, usually expressed in decimal parts of an inch. (See Formulas below.)

Particle Retention – the ability of a filter medium, such as wire cloth, to prevent the passage of solids; the size particle that will be retained by a given mesh, usually expressed in microns.

Selvage – a finished woven edge on wire cloth that prevents reveling and should be specified when required.

Shute – the wire running crosswise in the cloth as woven, perpendicular to the warp wires. It corresponds to the “weft” or “woof” in textiles and is sometimes referred to as “fill”.

Warp – the foundation wires, running the length of the woven cloth.

Weave, Plain – each shute wire passes alternately under and over successive warp wire; passes alternately over and under successive shute wires. Used in Standard and Dutch wire cloth.

Plain Weave

Weave, Plain Dutch – Dutch wire cloth (warp wires heavier than shute) in plain weave.

Plain Dutch Weave

Weave, Twilled – each shute wire passes alternately under and over two successive warp wire passes, and each warp wire passes over and under two successive shute wires, in a staggered arrangement. It requires less bending of the wires than plain weave, allowing heavier wire for a given mesh for greater strength. Both Standard and Dutch cloth are twilled.

Twilled Weave

Weave, Twilled Dutch – Dutch wire cloth (warp wires heavier than shute) in twilled weave.

Twilled Dutch Weave

Wire Diameter – normally referred to in decimal parts of an inch, a determining factor in mesh count. (0.025, .080, 0.0045, etc.)

Wire Cloth Formulas

Width of Opening – the following formula is used to determine the width of an opening for industrial wire cloth:

$O = \frac {1 - DM}{M}$
(O = opening; D = wire diameter; M = mesh)

Mesh Count – the following formula is used to determine the linear number of wires per inch:

$M = \frac {1}{O + D}$
(M = mesh count; O = opening; D = diameter of wire)

Wire Diameter – the following formula is used to determine the diameter of the wire in square mesh cloth:

$D = \frac {1 - MO}{M}$
(D = diameter of wire; M = mesh count; O = opening)

Open Area, Industrial Cloth – the following formula is used to determine the percentage of open area for industrial wire cloth:

$A = (OM)^2 x 100$
(A = percentage of area; O = size of opening; M = mesh count)

Open Area, Space Cloth – the following is used to determine the percentage of open area for space cloth:

$A = (\frac {O}{O + D})^2 x 100$
(A = percentage of area; O = size of opening; D = diameter of wire)