From air and water filtration to grilles and decorative features, perforated metal has many applications.
It’s easy to find perforated mesh walkways, perforated speaker grilles, perforated metal building cladding and many more perforated metal products and solutions.
But despite perforated metal’s versatility, it also has a major disadvantage… the waste of raw materials.
To manufacture perforated metal, several techniques are used.
During ‘cold perforation’, a roller full of pins is run over a metal sheet to punch the holes out. ‘Hot perforation’ is a similar technique, but heated pins are used instead: these create welts around the holes.
In addition to cold perforation and hot perforation, there is the die and punch process, in which a sheet with protruding needles is pressed on to a metal sheet as it rolls through a punch press, and laser perforation, where holes are burned into the metal sheet.
What these techniques have in common is that they punch or burn the holes out, wasting raw material.
Expanded metal offers similar practical advantages to perforated metal. However, the material is formed by slitting and stretching metal sheets, rather than punching through holes. This results in minimal waste of raw material. When applied to a material such as stainless steel or galvanised steel – especially where high volumes are concerned – this has significant advantages, helping end users make potentially substantial savings.
Indeed, up to 50 per cent of raw material costs could be saved by using an expanded metal sheet rather than its perforated metal equivalent.
Many expanded metal solutions offer a cost-effective alternative to perforated metal. If you want to offer a high level of grip while allowing water to drain away, or snow and ice to break off, then expanded metal walkway and ramp meshes are robust and effective alternatives to perforated walkway panels, or perforated metal loading ramps.
Likewise, expanded metal architectural cladding can be used on buildings instead of perforated cladding panels – and this mesh cladding can create stunning visual and lighting effects while allowing good air flow.
Experf – designed and manufactured at our 25,000 sqm UK headquarters – is an expanded metal mesh which, given its special design, can be even more closely matched to a perforated metal equivalent in terms of open area, if that is required in specification.
For instance, a perforated metal pattern with a 3mm hole can be swapped with Experf N6664F, or Experf N665NF can be used as an alternative to a perforated metal sheet with a 5mm hole.
Experf is available in both stainless steel and pre-galvanised steel and a large range of hole sizes are available. It has an excellent strength ratio – as well as good acoustic properties.
And Experf can be used in a wide range of applications and environments, including:
Want to find out more about our Experf solutions – and other alternatives to perforated metal? Contact our team today on +44 (0) 1429 867 388 or email sales@exmesh.co.uk.
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