Damming

A physical barrier, or dam, is placed inside the mold before casting to block resin flow and reduce the effective mold area. This creates a smaller finished panel directly during molding without the need for post-processing cuts.

Open Cut

The grating is molded to full size and then trimmed with exposed, open cells along the cut edges. This is often used when panels will be framed, banded, or installed in applications where exposed open mesh is acceptable.

An open cut provides greater dimensional flexibility because the cut does not have to coincide with a complete mesh cell or perimeter load bar.

Closed Cut

After molding, the panel is cut to size, and the cut edges are finished with load-bar material to close the perimeter cells. This provides a smoother outside edge and prevents exposed mesh openings, improving appearance and safety in certain applications.

To retain a completely closed perimeter, the finished panel dimension must correspond with the molded mesh pattern. The cut cannot be made at an arbitrary point through the center of a cell and still retain a complete outside load bar.

1. Each mesh has a repeating center-to-center pitch. Closed edges can occur only at positions that correspond with complete cells and outside load bars.
2. The closest closed-web dimension is determined by selecting the nearest whole number of mesh pitches and adding the approximate outside perimeter web.
3. The finished panel may therefore be slightly larger or smaller than the nominal 3 ft, 4 ft, 5 ft, 8 ft, 10 ft, or 12 ft designation.
4. If an exact nominal dimension is more important than maintaining a closed perimeter, the panel can be supplied with an open-edge cut.
5. For rectangular mesh, the pitch differs by direction. The panel orientation must therefore be established before the closest closed-web width and length are calculated.