Metalex expanded metal Process
Expanded metal converts solid sheet or plate metals into a material with diamond-shaped openings joined by continuous, uniform strands. The simultaneous slitting and stretching process generates an expanded material with essentially no scrap. The result is a strong, structurally sound, non-raveling metal product that permits the passage of heat, fluids, light, sound, and air.
Although there are standard designs, expanded metal is almost infinitely variable in pattern and can be specified to achieve whatever characteristics are most critical.
- Increased pattern size improves cost effectiveness.
- Varied strand width changes appearance and weight.
- Unflattened expanded metal provides strength and rigidity.
- Flattening smoothes the surface. Versatile and functional, expanded metal becomes an economical component in many designs. Its ability to be engineered to specific applications yields a product uniquely suited to its end use.
- Sheet or plate is advanced beyond the face of the bottom die an amount equal to the strand width before flattening.
- The top die then descends and simultaneously slits and cold forms an entire row of half diamonds.
- The top die then ascends and moves one half of a diamond to the right as the base sheet or plate moves forward one strand width.
- The top die descends, slits and forms another full row of half-diamonds completing a row of full diamonds in two strokes.
- The die then ascends and returns to its initial position.
- This process then continually repeats until the full sheet of expanded metal is completed.
No scrap, no raveling are the advantages
that set expanded metal apart from either perforated metal or wire cloth, making it both more economical and easier to handle.
Perforated & Tube
Perforated metal converts solid sheet into a material with uniform hole patterns which are punched to your specifications. Holes provide solutions to a great many design problems. Round holes, square holes, rectangles, triangles, slots, decorative patterns - the variety of possible shapes is limited only by the designer's imagination. Hole sizes range from a few thousandths of an inch in diameter up to more than three inches.
Many of perforated material uses are relatively new. Examples include applications for filtration, noise control, automotive, lighting, consumer electronics, appliance, as well as architectural uses. The rapid growth in the use of perforated materials strongly suggests that just the surface has been scratched for potential applications.