Corrugated Wire Mesh Packing

Corrugated wire mesh packing is the high-efficiency structured packing used where the separation is difficult — vacuum distillation, close-boiling mixtures, heat-sensitive products, and high-purity and fine-chemical work. The woven mesh wets by capillary action, so it performs even at very low liquid loads, and it delivers the most theoretical stages per metre of any packing, which is what precision separation needs.

Wire mesh packing is woven from fine metal gauze, while plate packing is made from perforated sheet. The gauze gives a larger surface area and far better wetting, so it reaches a higher efficiency — more theoretical stages per metre — but at a lower capacity and a higher cost. Plate packing takes more throughput; wire mesh is chosen when efficiency, vacuum performance or a wide turndown matters more.

Wire mesh packing offers the highest efficiency of the structured packings, on the order of several theoretical stages per metre, with a low pressure drop per stage that suits vacuum columns. It is made in high-surface-area sizes such as 500Y and 700Y — the figure being the packing's surface area per unit volume — and the size follows the separation and the column.

It is woven in stainless steel — 304, 316 and 316L are the usual grades — or in carbon steel or a special alloy for a given service, and cut as round or rectangular blocks to the column bore. Packing goes out in cartons, ton bags or steel drums. Tell us the column bore, the service and the separation and we will match the type and the size.