Woven Wire Cloth June 2000

“E 2016 [Standard Specification for Industrial Woven Wire Cloth] has the advantage of being the only standard to cover wire cloth as specified and manufactured according to mesh count,” says Ken Beyer, vice president, engineering, Unique Wire Weaving Co., Inc., Hillside, N.J. “The standard establishes tolerances, as well as presents standard terminologies and definitions for the user.”

Completed in 1999 by ASTM Subcommittee E29.01 on Sieves, Sieving Methods, and Screening Media within Committee E29 on Particle and Spray Characterization, Beyer says it will assist manufacturers of industrial wire cloth in meeting the highest standards of quality and uniformity.

“Industrial woven wire cloth is manufactured on looms from wire, similar in concept to the way the Egyptians did thousands of years ago,” he explains. “Today however, many thousands of combinations of specifications are woven from most any metal or alloy on looms incorporating the latest computer-controlled technologies.

“The main use of industrial wire cloth is the separation of particles. The many thousands of specific applications range from heavy aggregate screening to the finest of meshes used in high-tech aerospace. Wire cloth as a filter media can be employed for requirements as basic as the strainer in your water faucet, to as complex as the electronic filtering of electrons.

“The standard was developed for use by the world’s largest market of industrial wire cloth industry in the United States. It filled a void created as the previously used standard published under ANSI (AWCI-01-1992) was withdrawn in July 1997.”

More than 20 members of an E29.01 task group, led by Beyer, developed Standard E 2016. Ad Hoc Committee meetings included three members of ASTM E29.01 and eight members of the American Wire Cloth Institute (the trade association of North American weavers). This working committee was represented by operations managers, engineering, purchasing, production managers, and quality control personnel. The final draft addressed concerns from within ASTM, the entire AWCI membership, and other interested parties worldwide, Beyer reports.

“The standard is based on the principles of the old Federal Specification RR-W-360 that was widely used since 1954,” he concludes. “Although other specifications published by various organizations attempted to cover industrial wire cloth, E 2016 finally is the culmination of users and manufacturers working together to produce a practical standard.”

For further technical information, contact Ken Beyer, American Wire Cloth Institute, c/o Unique Wire Weaving Co., 762 Ramsey Ave., Hillside, NJ 07205 (908/688-4600). Committee E29 meets Oct. 22-24 in Orlando, Fla. For meeting or membership information, contact E29 manager Jim Olshefsky, ASTM (610/832-9714). //