Plain weave
Each warp wire passes over one weft wire and under the next. It is the most common weave and looks the same on both sides.
View productsWire mesh glossary
Plain definitions of the terms used to specify wire mesh, with a drawing of each weave and a wire gauge chart.
11 terms for specifying wire mesh
- ApertureAlso: space, clear opening
- The clear opening between two neighbouring wires, measured from their inside faces. It decides what passes through the mesh.
- Market gradeAlso: standard mesh
- Our standard pairings of mesh count and wire diameter in T-304 stainless steel, from 2 mesh to 325 mesh.
- Mesh countAlso: mesh
- The number of openings in one linear inch. Start at the centre of one wire and count the openings to a point exactly one inch away.
- MicronAlso: micrometre, µm
- One thousandth of a millimetre. Fine apertures are given in microns: an aperture of 0.5 mm is 500 microns.
- Off-count meshAlso: rectangular mesh
- Woven or welded mesh with a different mesh count in each direction, so the openings are rectangular. Used for filtering, sifting and architecture.
- Open area
- The share of the mesh that is opening, not wire, written as a percentage. It comes from the aperture and the wire diameter.
- Pitch
- The distance from the centre of one wire to the centre of the next. It is the aperture plus one wire diameter.
- Shute wireAlso: weft, fill, shoot
- The wires that run the short way in a roll of wire cloth and make up its width. They stand upright when the roll stands on its end.
- Space cloth
- Mesh named by its clear opening and not by its mesh count: a 1 inch space cloth has openings one inch across.
- Warp wire
- The wires that run the long way in a roll of wire cloth and make up its length. They lie level when the roll stands on its end.
- Wire diameterAlso: gauge
- The thickness of a single wire, in millimetres, inches or a gauge number. Measure it with a micrometer.
Weaves and mesh shapes
Dutch weave
The warp wires are thicker than the weft wires, which are driven close together. The result is a dense, firm cloth for filtration.
View productsTwill Dutch weave
A Dutch weave in a twill pattern: each weft wire passes over two warp wires and under two, giving a finer mesh.
View productsReverse Dutch weave
The opposite of Dutch weave: many thin warp wires and fewer, thicker weft wires. It stays stable and resists high pressure.
View productsFive shed twill weave
Each warp wire passes over four weft wires and under one. This gives the cloth a very smooth surface on one side.
View productsSquare mesh
The wires are spaced the same distance apart in both directions, so every opening in the mesh is a square.
View productsRectangular mesh
The wires are spaced further apart in one direction than the other, which makes every opening longer one way.
View productsWire gauge chart
| Gauge | Diameter in | Diameter mm |
|---|---|---|
| #6 | 0.192 | 4.88 |
| #7 | 0.177 | 4.50 |
| #8 | 0.162 | 4.11 |
| #9 | 0.148 | 3.76 |
| #10 | 0.135 | 3.43 |
| #11 | 0.120 | 3.05 |
| #12 | 0.105 | 2.67 |
| #13 | 0.092 | 2.34 |
| #14 | 0.080 | 2.03 |
| #15 | 0.072 | 1.83 |
| Gauge | Diameter in | Diameter mm |
|---|---|---|
| #16 | 0.063 | 1.60 |
| #17 | 0.054 | 1.37 |
| #18 | 0.047 | 1.19 |
| #19 | 0.041 | 1.04 |
| #20 | 0.035 | 0.89 |
| #21 | 0.032 | 0.81 |
| #22 | 0.028 | 0.71 |
| #23 | 0.025 | 0.64 |
| #24 | 0.023 | 0.58 |
| #25 | 0.020 | 0.51 |
Washburn & Moen gauge numbers with the wire diameter each stands for. The millimetre figures are worked out from the inches.
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