Expanded Metals

About Expanded Metal and Expanded Metal Manufacturers Including: Expanded Metal Fence, Expanded Metal Mesh and Expanded Steel.

Expanded metal is a sheet of metal which has been slit and expanded up to ten times its original width. Expanded metal manufacturers simultaneously slit and stretch the metal to form a solid piece construction, which has a meshed, diamond-shape cutout pattern. Expanded metal is finished product that offers versatility, durability, and excellent weight-to-strength ratio. It can be adapted for use in almost any application, and comes in a wide range of styles and finishes.

Expanded metal manufacturers produce three primary types of expanded metal: flattened, unflattened or standard, and decorative. Flattened expanded metal, which has been cold-rolled after expansion to provide a smooth, flat, level sheet. This flattening reduces the thickness of the metal by about ten percent. Unflattened or standard expanded metal comes directly from the press with a raised texture. It is more rigid than flattened expanded metal. Decorative expanded metal is produced with a variety of mesh patterns.

Expanded metal may be used in a variety of applications and industries. The metal may be used for architectural panels, stairs, gratings, vents, drying racks, flooring, enclosures, ramps, fencing, walkways, grilles, and security partitions. When rigidity, strength, light weight, and the free passage of air and light are needed, expanded metal is a versatile and functional product.

Expanded metal manufacturers offer a wide range of mesh patterns, materials and finishes to suit many applications. Normally, the metals used in production of expanded metal are carbon, steel, aluminum and stainless steel. Copper, silver, nickel and other ferrous and non-ferrous metals may also be used in decorative applications. Finishes include galvanized, porcelain enameled, painted, lacquered, plastic coated and anodized. Because of its versatility and strength, expanded metal is in high demand in many industrial and commercial settings.

Perforated and expanded metals are fabricated differently. While perforated metals are punched, expanded metals are simultaneously slit and stretched, a process which uses less raw material and creates no scrap. Although the two have several overlapping uses, overall expanded metals are more useful in industrial and architectural applications, whereas perforated metals perform unique tasks in technical industries such as sound, lighting, electronics and radio wave. Perforated metals perform tasks such as sound absorption, microwave absorption, architectural decoration and filtering which less costly expanded metals cannot; for this reason, both perforated metals and expanded metals continue to be popular materials in their own respective markets.

Expanded Metals Images Provided by Niles Expanded Metals & Plastics

Examples of Expanded Metal Patterns All Images Provided by Niles Expanded Metals & Plastics
Decorative	Diamond
Hexagonal	Round
Square

Types of Expanded Metals

• Decorative expanded metal comes with a variety of mesh patterns other than the standard diamond shape, and may also be produced using more decorative metals, such as copper or silver.
  
• Expanded grating is used for walkways and platforms designed for pedestrian foot traffic.
  
• Expanded metal fence is fencing produced from expanded metal. It offers strength, safety, durability and aesthetic qualities not found with many other types of fencing.
  
• Expanded metal mesh is used when smaller openings are desired, such as in filters.
  
• Expanded steel can be found in a number of strengths for applications varying from walkways and fencing to corner netting for use under plaster and drywall.
  
• Flattened expanded metal has been cold-rolled after expansion, providing a smooth, flat and level sheet. The metal's thickness thus will be reduced by up to ten percent.
  
• Mini mesh expanded metal has very small opening in comparison to other types of expanded metals or mesh.
  
• Unflattened or standard expanded metal comes directly from the press and has a raised pattern. The strands and bonds are set at a uniform angle to the plane of the sheet.

Common Terms Related to Expanded Metals

Blank to Size - Custom size expanded metal part made to customer's specifications.

Bond - The solid intersection of two strands of metal found in expanded metal.

Bond Edge - Manufactured closed perimeter diamond.

Coil Product - Expanded metal produced as one continuous coil of the material rather than in individual pieces.

Diamond or Opening - This is the description of the open area formed by strands and bonds. Normally the open area is diamond shaped.

Leveling - All expanded metal products except grating are leveled after having been expanded.

LWD - Long way of diamond or long way of opening is the dimension measured across the sheet in a direction parallel to the largest dimension of the diamond.

Mesh - This is the nominal distance from the mid-point of one bond to the mid-point of the next bond measured across the SWD. Mesh is expressed in inches.

Percent Open Area - The total open area of a section of expanded metal. Found by calculating two times the strand width, divided by the short way of diamond (SWD), and then taking the inverse of the resulting number.

SWD - Short way of diamond or short way of opening is the dimension measured across the sheet in a direction parallel to the smallest dimension of the diamond.

Strand Thickness - Thickness of base metal when in the unflattened state.

Strand Width - The dimension associated with the thickness of one strand of metal.