How Is Welded Wire Mesh Made?
If you’re looking for a higher security option for your perimeter fence system, you might be considering welded wire mesh.
Welded wire mesh comes in a variety of forms, in panels or rolls, with different sizes and heights and even different finishes. However, the process to manufacture welded wire mesh is the same for most of those products. Here’s what you need to know.
It Starts with wire
The first thing you need to do when you want to manufacture welded wire mesh is decide what kind of wire you’re going to use.
In most cases, welded wire mesh is manufactured from mild steel wire, but it’s available in different diameters and grades, so you’ll need to decide what kind of wire you want to use before you start the process.
Some welded wire mesh panels or products also have different wire diameters. Some might have thicker wires in the veritical or horizontal direction, or there might be thicker wires on parts of a panel to add to the structural strength.
Wire that is used to manufacture welded wire mesh usually comes on a large spool, which makes it easy to feed the wire into the machines.
Here's a video of the process courtesty of a welded wire mesh machine manufacturer. View the video in fullscreen for best results.
Electrically Welded
The next thing you need to know about how welded wire mesh is made is that it’s created using a process known as electric welding.
Ordinary welding of wire mesh that has hundreds or even thousands of welds per panel or roll would not be feasible. It would cost an absolute fortune, take years, and not be as accurate.
Instead, welded wire mesh is made by a machine that has dozens of welding tips mounted exactly where each weld needs to be made. As the machine feeds wire and it is placed, these welding heads move down, create the weld, and then move up again. This process is repeated many times per minute, allowing the machines to create welded wire mesh relatively quickly.
One thing that’s important to consider when manufacturing welded wire mesh is the weld strength, so if you’re planning to purchase a machine to make this kind of mesh, make sure you find that information out from the manufacturer.
Welded Wire Mesh Finishes
The last thing that you will need to consider when manufacturing welded wire mesh is what the finish on the product will be.
Hot dip galvanized welded wire mesh is a good basic option, but there are also options for zincalume and other types of coatings. Welded wire mesh can also be painted or powder coated on top of galvanizing or other metal coatings, and that offers additional protection from the elements.
Stronger Than Chain Link Fabric – But Less Flexible
As you can see from the welded wire mesh manufacturing process, this kind of mesh is definitely stronger than chain link mesh, simply because every wire intersection is welded.
However, welded wire mesh as virtually no flexibility. This makes it a little more complicated to install,
