Stainless Steel Mesh

Stainless steel is a low maintenance material but not maintenance free. As the name suggests it is ‘stain-less’ not stain free. Long life can be achieved with proper grade selection, fabrication, installation, and regular cleaning.

When specifying woven wire mesh, understanding the relationship between aperture, wire diameter, mesh count, and open area is essential for selecting the right product for your application.

Calculating the Aperture

The aperture is the clear space between two adjacent wires in a woven mesh. Follow these steps to calculate the aperture of any woven wire mesh:

1. Count a convenient number of apertures (N)
2. Measure the length covered by the N apertures (L)
3. Measure the wire diameter (D)
4. Calculate the average aperture (A) using the formula below

Working Example

Calculating the aperture of 6/20 woven wire mesh:

The woven wire is identified as 3.33 mm aperture / 0.9 mm diameter

Mesh Count

If the aperture and the diameter are known, the mesh count can be determined using the following formula:

Percentage Open Area

The percentage open area indicates how much of the mesh is open space, which is critical for applications requiring airflow, light transmission, or filtration:

Micron Conversion

For filtration and precision applications, aperture is often expressed in microns (μm). The conversion is straightforward: