Stainless Steel Wire Mesh Basic Introduction

Woven wire cloth is widely used for filtration and is available in a wide range of materials and mesh sizes. It can be woven from any material which is ductile enough to be drawn into a wire form. Preferred materials are phosphor bronze, stainless steel and monel (nickel alloy). Other materials widely used include aluminium alloys, copper plain mild steel or coated mild steel.

The minimum particle size of wire which can be used depends on the alloy, strength required, temperature and corrosion. 
Mesh is described by form of weave and mesh count. A square mesh is the usual form in a plain or twilled weave.
    

For figuring out mesh sizes you have to count the number of openings from the center of any one wire to the center of a parallel wire one inch away. The number of openings is the mesh size. So a 2 mesh screen means there are two little squares across one linear inch of screen. A 100 mesh screen has 100 openings, and so on. Note, therefore that as the number describing the mesh size increases, the size of the particles decreases. Screens can be made with different thicknesses of wire. The thicker the wires, the smaller is the particle passing through that screen, and vice versa.