Stainless Steel (SS) Woven Wire Mesh | Screen | Cloth

Stainless steel woven wire mesh is interlaced with warp wires and weft wires at right angles. Warp wires run across the length of the mesh as woven, and weft wires run across the width of the mesh when woven. Weft wires is also known as woof or filling wires.

If interlacing of the warp and weft (woof / filling) wires are different, and then the weave structure and characteristics of the wire mesh screen are different.

Woven wire mesh is commonly created with these four weaves: plain, twill, plain dutch and twill dutch.

• Plain Weave: stainless steel wire mesh in which each warp wire and each weft wire pass over one, and then under the next adjacent wire in both directions.
• Twill Weave: each warp wire and each weft wire of stainless steel mesh pass over two, and then under two successive wires in both directions.
• Plain Dutch Weave: Weave method of steel mesh screen is the same as plain type. But requirements about the diameter of warp and weft wires are different between plain and plain dutch weave. In other words, for plain weave wire screens, diameter of warp wires are the same as weft wires. But warp wire diameter of plain dutch woven wire mesh is usually larger than its weft wire. So the weft wires are closely spaced to provide a very tight weave.
• Twill Dutch Weave: Similar with twill except the weft wire diameter is smaller than the warp wire. Twill dutch stainless steel woven mesh is an even tighter woven wire mesh screen and even finer filtration than plain dutch woven mesh.

Stainless steel mesh screens can be used in a wide range of environments for screening, shielding, filtering, supporting, separating, etc. For instance:

Wine glass cover is typically a round wire mesh filter disc with (metal, silicone or other materials) edge. Because the edge covers the sharp wires. So it can protect users. Moreover, the disc is made from 304 ss wire mesh.

So how to use? We just need to put the mesh disk on the wine glass. Then stainless steel mesh will screen out insects / pests and airborne particles which size bigger than the openings. At the same time, stainless steel woven mesh openings can allow your wine to breathe.

In addition, the mesh can also be etched, and the ring material is usually silicone.

• Woven wire mesh disc + metal ring

• Etching disc + silicone edge

Cold brew coffee filter is commonly a cylinder tube with flange. But sometimes it’s cone shape. So it can hung at the mouth of the mason jar. We can also take it out easily. The tube is typically made from 304 stainless steel mesh screen food grade with suitable micron sizes for example 100 micron, 120 micron or 150 micron mesh size.

So how to use it? Just need to add freshly ground coffee and water. Then coffee can invite yummy goodness from the grounds. At the same time, filter tube will keep grounds out of the coffee. The following are some pictures as reference.

• Plain weave cold brew coffee filter

• Dutch weave cold brew coffee filter

• Etched type cold brew coffee filter

Wire gauze is commonly a flat disc of coarse mesh. Stainless steel wire gauze mats can be used for supporting the beakers, flasks or other glassware during heating in the science laboratory. Plain wire gauze can transmit heat efficiently and also diffuse the heat. So it can protect the glassware which cannot be heated directly with the flame of a Bunsen burner.

Popular sizes are in square / round shapes of 4 inches, 5 inches, 6 inches, 100 mm, 125 mm, 130 mm or 150 mm to accommodate different sizes of glassware.

The edges of square wire gauze are usually turned inward to prevent fraying, and then it will protect user from sharp protruding wire ends. Round stainless steel gauze mat is mostly covered by metal sheet. It can also protect user.

• Square stainless steel mesh sheet

• Round stainless steel mesh disc + metal ring

Laboratory test sieves is typically used to prevent the product by foreign bodies. So mesh sieves with different openings are used for different particles need to be separated. For example, if you want to screen out particles over 0.7 mm, you can choose a mesh with 24X24 mesh count, 0.356 mm wire diameter. Because its opening size is 0.7 mm, particles above 0.7 mm will be left in the metal sieve.

• Frame material: stainless steel, Chrome-plated iron, brass
• Diameter: common size is 10 cm, 20 cm, 30 cm
• Mesh:
  • Material: if it isn’t specified, then we assume that stainless steel is acceptable.
  • Mesh count: Plain / twill woven mesh can up to 635 mesh (in other words, micron size can down to 20 micron). However, dutch woven mesh can up to 500X3200 mesh (micron mesh size can down to 1 micron)

The following are some pictures for your reference.

• Stainless steel mesh sieves with coarse mesh

• Chromium plated iron laboratory sieves
  • Fine mesh sieves in different sizes

• • Lid + bottom

• • Set of sieves: lid + sieve + bottom

• Brass laboratory test sieves

Screen mesh size chart will show you details. But as we can see in the below chart, there are lots of numbers. So how I can get something useful.

There are three main metrics about stainless steel woven wire mesh: mesh counts / sizes, wire diameter and aperture / opening. In addition, there is a function between them. So if two of them are known, the rest can be calculated.

Mesh count = 25.4 mm / (wire diameter [mm] + opening [mm])

Please note: the following stainless steel (SS) filter wire mesh screen size chart is also suitable for other metal woven wire mesh. Just the highest mesh count are different for different metal material. For example, nickel wire mesh size can up to 365, but copper wire mesh size can only up to 250.

Mesh counts / sizes number means the number of openings per inch, counting from the center of any wire to a point 1 inch or 25.4 mm distant.

People may ask:

What is wire mesh size? | What size is 40 / 80 / 150 mesh? | What is 20 / 60 mesh screen?

What is the meaning of 20 mesh size? | What does 200 mesh mean?

• They probably all refer to the stainless steel filter mesh in which there are the same (plain or twill woven wire mesh) or different (plain dutch or twill dutch woven mesh) amount of openings per inch in both lengthwise and crosswise. For example, 20 (also called 20×20) mesh screen is a stainless steel wire mesh in which there are 20 openings per inch in both directions.
• In addition, 400×3100 mesh fine wire mesh is a twill dutch weave 316L mesh in which there are 400 openings per inch in lengthwise, and 3100 openings per inch in crosswise.

How do you know your screen wire mesh size?

• Firstly, counting the number of openings per inch directly.
• But if it’s uncountable, how do you calculate mesh size? For example, there are too many holes to count, or you think counting isn’t a good choice.
  • If the size of wire diameter and opening are known, then bring them into the formula above to get the mesh size.
  • If both two are unknown, then how do you determine / specify your screen wire mesh size?
    • Firstly, using a micrometer to measure the wire diameter, and a ruler or vernier caliper to measure the aperture.
    • Secondly, using the function to calculate.
• However, if it’s uncountable and hard to measure hole size by ruler or vernier caliper, microscope may help you.

It refers to the thickness of one wire. In addition, it’s related to the thickness of wire mesh filter screen. So how thick is mesh?

It’s roughly equal to warp wire diameter plus weft wire diameter.

Aperture / Opening: The dimension between two adjacent parallel wires, usually measured in inches or millimeters. But opening is not affected by diameter of the wire.

Micron: 1 micron is equal to 0.001 mm.

Mesh size means the number of openings per inch.

But micron tells us the nominal opening size.

Both mesh and micron size can specify the wire mesh sizes, and they can convert to each other.

For example, if mesh size is 635, we can know the aperture size is 0.0203 mm, approximately 20 micron. So when we mention 635 mesh and 20 micron, these two meshes may be the same. So why “may be”? Because 635 mesh stainless steel mesh needs to be woven by twill type. But 20 micron fine wire mesh can be woven by twill (635 mesh size) or twill dutch (101*780 mesh size) type. So they aren’t exactly the same as each other.

For plain / twill woven stainless steel wire mesh screen, micron size can down to 20 micron (in other words, mesh count can up to 635) for now. But twill dutch weave mesh can down to 1 mciron. So for 1 micron mesh, it’s typically woven by twill dutch type, and mesh size is 500*3200.

Firstly, 100 micron means steel mesh screen opening is about 0.1 mm; 200 micron stainless steel mesh filter opening is about 0.2 mm. So 100 micron opening size is smaller than 200 micron.

Secondly, let’s check the filter mesh size chart above to figure out the estimated mesh counts of each.

• For 0.1 mm opening, mesh number is roughly 150.
• Mesh size with 0.2 mm opening is about 70.
• 100 micron mesh screen has more openings per inch than 200 micton mesh. So 100 micron is finer than 200 micron.

% Open Area: The proportion of the opening area in the total screen area expressed as a percent. See the following function.

% Open Area = 100 * opening [mm]² / (opening [mm] + wire diameter [mm])²

Stainless steel is a group of iron-based alloys, and it falls into 5 types which are primarily classified by their crystalline structure: austenitic, ferritic, martensitic, duplex, and precipitation hardening.

There are numerous grades of stainless steel due to varying contents. Usually, different grades stainless steel suits different environments. The following are some of them.

Stainless steel grades are different because of their different chemical composition. The following are the details about elements of 304 and 316.

• SUS304 material is the stainless steel which main composition is chromium (between 18% and 20%) and nickel (8%-10.5%) except iron. It also contains carbon (<0.08%), manganese (<2%), silicon (<0.75%) and others.
• Type 316 stainless steel possesses chromium (16%-18%), nickel (10%-14%), carbon (<0.08%), manganese (<2%), silicon (<0.75%), molybdenum (2%-3%) and others as the non-iron constituents.

Some nominal metal contents of them are different. SS 316 has less chromium, more nickel, addition of molybdenum than SS 304. So corrosion resistance of 316 is better.

Maybe no. Because we can see in the chart of stainless steel chemical composition by weight (%), 304’s requirements about contents are a range, not an exact number. So contents of different 304 stainless steels just need to be restricted to the range, and they don’t have to exactly the same.

For example, regardless of the influence of other elements, nickel content only needs to be between 8% and 10.5% (no matter 8%, 9%, 9.5% or others). Then we can call all of these alloys are 304 because contents meet 304 chemical composition requirements.

Both 304L and 316L are low carbon versions of 304 and 316. Theirs carbon elements below 0.03%. But the carbon content of 304 and 316 are restricted to 0-0.08%.

They both possess the same nominal chromium and nickel content and thus provide the same corrosion resistance. By contrast, 316L has lower carbon content, which makes it resistant sensitization during welding.

Both AISI 304 and 304 stainless steel are typically refer to the Type 304 stainless steel material. But they are specified by different steel grade system. Let’s check the stainless steel grades chart above, we can figure out it is also called 1.4301, UNS S30400, SUS304, A2 stainless steel, 18/8 stainless steel. In addition, Type 304 is the most common grade of stainless steel.

Similarly, 316 stainless steel is also know as 1.4401, UNS S31600, SUS316.

Both 304 and 316 are just a three-digit number which is designated for specific types of stainless steel.

Firstly, we need to know each metal content.

Then checking if all contents are restricted to as 316 specified chemical composition. If yes, then we can say your stainless steel is 316 grade.

316 belongs to Austenitic stainless steel. So its primary crystalline structure is austenite (face-centered cubic) which makes them essentially non-magnetic. So 316 stainless steel is non-magnetic.

Yes, 316 is typically known as marine grade stainless steel due to addition of molybdenum which makes it resist the corrosive effects of NaCl or salt in seawater.

However, 316 isn’t completely suited in everywhere in seawater. Why?

• Because concentrations of chloride, salt or others in seawater can vary, and thus the corrosive severity of marine environments can vary.
• Rainfall can also make a difference for the resistance of stainless steel alloy used near the seashore. Near the seashore with high rainfall may be less corrosive than desert locations.

So different places need different grades of stainless steel usually. For example:

• If wire mesh will be submerged in seawater, then duplex 2507 (UNS S32750) stainless steel is typically considered.
• But if wire mesh will be used near to the seashore, 316L or other stainless steel with greater corrosion resistance ability may be a better choice.

904L is an iron-based alloy, and also contains other elements. For example, chromium (19%-23%), nickel (23%-28%), carbon (<0.02%), manganese (<2%), silicon (<1%), molybdenum (4%-5%) and others.

Rolex chose to use 904L stainless steel because it takes a higher polish than other grades of steel and provides greater corrosion resistance.

• 904L has lower carbon content than 316L. So it provides better resistance to sensitization by welding. Moreover, it prevents intergranular corrosion.
• The addition of molybdenum gives it greater resistance to localized corrosive attack by chlorides and to general corrosion by reducing acids, for example sulfuric acid.

Stainless steel is iron-based alloy that contains a minimum of approximately 11% chromium which can form a passive film. So it resistant to rust. So yes, they possess excellent corrosion resistance in many environments. But they doesn’t have completely rust proof. In other words, stainless steel may be sensitive to corrosion if they are used in the environment the alloy cannot endure.

For example, 304 stainless steel has good resistance to a wide range of atmospheric environments and many corrosive media. However, it’s sensitive to corrosion by chlorides or general corrosion in acidic. 316L performs greater than 316 where welding is required. Because its low carbon content makes it resist to sensitization by welding and which prevents intergranular corrosion.

The nominal chemical composition of duplex 2205 is chromium (21%-23%), nickel (4.5%-6.5%), carbon (<0.03%), manganese (<2%), silicon (<1%), molybdenum (2.5%-3.5%) and others.

Elements of super duplex 2507 are chromium (24%-26%), nickel (6%-8%), carbon (<0.03%), manganese (<2%), silicon (<1%), molybdenum (3.0%-4.5%) and others.

Super duplex 2507 provides better corrosion resistance than suplex 2205. That’s because of the addition of chromium, nickel and molybdenum.

According to different crystalline structure, there are 5 subgroups of stainless steel: austenitic, ferritic, martensitic, duplex, and precipitation hardening. So duplex belongs to stainless steel.

In comparison to austenitic stainless steel (like 304, 316 or 316L), the addition of chromium and molybdenum makes duplex resist better to corrosion, particularly chloride stress corrosion and chloride pitting corrosion.