The history of wire mesh and wire mesh manufacturing
The manufacture of wire meshes has its roots in the most traditional textile production technologies, such as weaving and knitting. Wire weaving on looms for industrial purposes appeared in the early part of the 18th Century. In those years, the steam-driven loom for textile weaving was invented: this new technology rapidly transferred to the wire industry, in particular for automated wire weaving processes. A driving force behind the development of wire meshes was the growing paper industry, as an endless wire mesh belt allowed the processing of pulp much faster than before. The result was that paper needed for newspapers, journals, and books could be produced at higher speeds and in larger quantities than ever.
Wire mesh also plays an important role in the “Davy lamp”, which was invented by the chemist Humphry Davy in 1815. It was designed to reduce the danger of flammable gas explosions and to warn about carbon monoxide presence in mines. This safety lamp was crucial for the development of the coal and iron ore mining industry, and thus for the progress in steel making in the 19th century. Woven wire mesh, therefore, was key to the development of the industrial revolution. In the early 20th century, with the widespread availability of electricity, modern welding methods – such as resistance welding – arose and opened the way to welded wire mesh manufacturing. In the first decades of the 20th century, increasing military demand for military aircraft, tanks, vehicles, and gas mask filters caused an economic increase in the wire mesh industry.
Manufacture of wire mesh, wire cloth, and packaging types
Different methods – such as welding, weaving, netting, or knitting – are used to process metallic wires into wire mesh. Flat mesh products arrive on the market in the form of coils or stacks.
Welded wire mesh is produced via automated CNC welding machines. Horizontal wires are continuously fed in parallel rows into the machine directly from the coil. Vertical wires are straightened, cut, and laid onto the horizontal wires for spot welding operations. In this way, a flat and rigid panel with square, rectangular, or diamond-shaped meshes is manufactured. A shear cuts the mesh panel once it reaches its specified length. Then, a transporting device extracts the final products from the welding line and stacks them for the following transportations.
Different diameter and wire spacing configurations allow great panel customization to accommodate any need.
Wire cloth is made on weaving machines. The longitudinal wires, known as warp wires, run continuously from the back of the machine to the front side. A device holds the warp wires in place. Some of these wires are alternatively raised or lowered by a mechanism, creating an opening in the transverse direction. A shuttle – with another wire, called weft wire – is “shot” through one opening, returned through the subsequent one, and so on. In this way, the weft wire is woven through the warp wires. Both types of wires interlace with each other at specific angles to form the wire cloth.
Wire nettings are manufactured via chain link machines, which loop different wires into one another according to a regular pattern.
Literature
About textile weaving:
Valeriy Choogin, Palitha Bandara, Elena Chepelyuk: Mechanisms of Flat Weaving Technology. 1st Edition. Woodhead Publishing, 2013
ISBN: 9780857097804
eBook ISBN: 9780857097859
Introduction To Weaving Technology.
https://textilelibrary.wordpress.com/2011/04/09/introduction-to-weaving-technology/
Emel Önder, Ömer Berk Berkalp: Weaving Technology II
https://web.itu.edu.tr/~berkalpo/Weaving_Lecture/Weaving_Chapter1a_06S.pdf
About resistance welding:
Hongyan Zhang, Jacek Senkara: Resistance Welding. Fundamentals and Applications. Taylor & Francis Inc; New edition, 2011.
ISBN-10: 1439853711
ISBN-13: 978-1439853719
Nigel Scotchmer: The Other Resistance Process: Cross Wire Welding. In: Welding Journal, December 2007, pages 36-39.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/294463669_The_other_resistance_process_Cross_wire_welding
For helping us compile the information, we thank -Ing. Konrad Dengler, technical journalist and translator specialized in industrial topics.