Expanded metal is an incredibly versatile product, suitable for dozens of applications in nearly as many industries.
Perhaps one of the most common expanded metal applications is in the aerospace industry, where it is integrated into the skin of aircraft to dissipate electrical energy in the event of a lightning strike.
Applications using expanded metal products include:
- Aircraft Lighting Strike Protection — Expanded metal foil is widely used for lightning strike protection in both military and commercial passenger aircraft. The lightweight material significantly reduces the risk of burns, delamination and other damage that may occur to the aircraft.
- Wind Turbine Lighting Strike Protection — Just like aircraft, wind turbine blades are prone to lightning strikes and use expanded metal to dissipate them to minimize damage.
- Automotive — The automotive industry is full of components and assemblies manufactured with expanded metal.
- Battery Cell Materials — In batteries, expanded metal foil provides greater surface area than solid material which provides increased energy density and improved capacity.
- Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) Shielding— Expanded metal is commonly employed in computers and other household electronics for the purpose of electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio frequency interference (RFI) shielding, as well as for physical protection.
- Fuel cells — Expanded metal performs similar functions in fuel cells as they do in batteries.
- Industrial Filtration — In industrial settings, expanded metal products are used both as filter media and filter media support structures.
- Oil filters — Oil filters used in the automobile industry, including in oil and hydraulic systems, use expanded metal as their primary support structure.
- Electric heating — Expanded metal is used as the primary heating element in electrically-based heating systems, such as household baseboard systems.
This is just a sampling of expanded metal applications. CThru Metals provides expanded metal products for these and other applications to a variety of industries, including:
- Aerospace
- Military/defense
- Electronics
- Renewable energy
- Medical
- Food and beverage
CThru Mesh® Capabilities
CThru Mesh from CThru Metals delivers the most cost-effective expanded metal products compared to our competitors — without sacrificing quality. It will never fray or unravel like woven wire cloth from other providers sometimes can. Thanks to a unique production method that requires no lubricant, your completed metal mesh from CThru Metals is also cleaner. Most importantly, CThru’s highly engineered expanding machines run at up to twice the speed of our competitors saving you cost.
Perhaps the biggest strength of CThru Mesh is its high degree of customization. CThru Metals maintains a wide range of capabilities, allowing us to offer expanded metal in a virtually unlimited number of patterns. We can also accommodate metal mesh in a variety of thicknesses, widths, materials, and configurations.
To learn more about CThru® Mesh, CThru Metals, and our capabilities, contact us today.