The Versatility of Expanded Metal
by Jonathan McGaha | April 3, 2011 12:00 am
Most people in North America have no idea who makes expanded metal. They don’t know how it’s made. And chances are they don’t even know what expanded metal is, but they see it every day. It’s in their homes, in their offices, in the cars they drive, their lawn mowers, and is on virtually every production machine that has moving parts. It screens the good guys from the bad guys in a police car, plays an integral part of the batteries on the space shuttle, and forms much of the fencing on their national borders. They know what it is, but they have probably never thought of it from a design standpoint.
Expanded metal is produced from nearly any malleable sheet metal product (carbon steel, aluminum, nickel alloys, copper and other red metals, stainless steel, titanium, and zinc). It is produced by simultaneously slitting and stretching the material forming openings and increasing the rigidity of the original base metal. And it is one of the most flexible building materials available.
A Uniquely Changeable Building Material
Expanded metal is widely used where light diffusion is needed. A recent project on a library in Champagne, Ill., utilized this aspect to mediate the impact of the afternoon sun in reading areas. While providing shade, it allowed light to flow in most of the day. Because of its transparent nature of the product, people inside could still see the daylight. Many sunshade products are produced by the expanded metal manufacturers and these typically have a wide strand to modify the light diffusion to suit the specific application.
Just this one attribute of expanded metal makes it a unique architectural material. But expanded metal can be infinitely modified to meet the needs of nearly any application. The patterns can be the typical diamond or they can be hexagonal or round. The pattern size can range from less than one eighth of an inch to 8 inches or longer in the long axis of the diamond. The short axis can vary nearly as much. The strand width, which is the amount of material that makes up the sides of the diamond, can be as narrow as the thickness of the material or as wide as an inch or more. Of
course, the thickness of the material can be adapted to whether the sunshade is for a parking garage, a façade on a building or as above an attached, movable shade. And the choice of materials is left to the architect, construction engineers or building owner.
Security on Your Terms
Buried beneath the wall board in most pharmacies, government offices, banks and other buildings where security is an issue, is a layer of expanded metal. Attached to the studs, whether steel or wood, expanded metal is completely unobtrusive yet provides a very high level of security. After the sheet of expanded metal is attached to the studs the wall board or other interior wall material is attached in the same way as it normally would be. This has become very prevalent in the construction of strip malls to prevent movement from a non-secure lessee’s premises to the next business.
More visible is the use of expanded metal for security fencing. Whether the facility is a water treatment plant, a nuclear power plant or a government building, expanded metal prevents penetration and scaling as well as any fencing material and much better than most. For a facility that needs security but aesthetics are important, the product can be powder coated so that the fence blends in with the environment. Again, the patterns can be varied to accommodate the projects specific needs.
Just Because It Looks Good
There are some applications where the building owner, the construction engineer or architect just wants to use something that is unique. Expanded metal has been described as a material which will go from “functional to fanciful” depending upon the needs of the specifier. Ceiling tiles from expanded metal have been used for years. They are now being used not only for light diffusion or to convey a sense of an industrial history (as in a refurbished warehouse loft), but the product is also being used because of its inherent look. Schools, offices and car dealerships have used the product for ceiling tiles just because they look good.
An Oklahoma City steakhouse used expanded metal as an interior wall covering because of its appearance. The Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, designed by world famous architects Herzog & De Meuron of Switzerland, utilized expanded metal for the outer shell of the building to reflect the ever changing environment in Minneapolis.
The point is that this product is available to building owners, construction engineers and architects, and can do what ever you ask it to do.
Expanded Metal Manufacturers Association
(EMMA) is a division of the Chicago-area based trade association, the National Association of Architectural Metal Manufacturers
(NAAMM). The six member companies of EMMA are Alabama Metal Industries Corp., Exmet Industries Inc., Expanded Solutions LLC., Fisher & Ludlow, New Metals Inc. and Spantek Expanded Metal. To learn more about EMMA and its members visit www.emma-assoc.org.
Rick Bahner is the managing member of Expanded Solutions LLC. Based in Oklahoma City, Expanded Solutions supplies North America with the complete array of industrial products in all sizes and produces micro mesh products from precious metals, as well.
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