With the increase in all kinds of screen printing products, the types of screen materials and screen plates are also increasing these days. Generally speaking, screen materials were originally used in other industries. Later some other types of materials were developed according to the needs of screen printing.

However, although a variety of non-metallic screen materials, such as silk, nylon and polyester, have been used in the screen printing industry, they still cannot meet all screen printing needs. For example, the screen material used for dye printing or porcelain ink printing must withstand the long-term erosion of ink and solvent.

The screen plate needs to be recycled and reused. In order to meet the needs of these screen printing, people urgently need a screen with long life and good stability, so the "wire mesh" in the industry was born.

Wire mesh is capable of printing even the finest patterns due to the fact that the wire diameters are very consistent. It's larger than other mesh materials, and unlike non-metallic mesh that absorbs ink easily. The wire does not absorb ink or solvents, Therefore, a relatively flat ink film layer can be obtained.

It has many advantages. The frequent replacement of the template won't cause damage to the wire mesh. The ink is also easy to pass through the wire mesh. It is especially suitable for printing with porcelain ink, glass frit ink, flake copper powder ink and dye ink. It can be used for relatively fine work. Metal screen can get a thick ink film layer, better rigidity, accurate overprint in printing. It can be used for mechanical automation, semi-automatic or manual printing.

In the past, due to the reason that the wire mesh is not easy to stretch and expensive, it is generally only used to make small screens, but now it is popular in medium and large screens. Although it is more expensive and less elastic, the consistency and unlimited availability keep costs down overall. And the correct stretching and printing technology make up for the shortcomings of poor elasticity.

Wire mesh for screen printing is available in two weave types, plain weave and twisted weave. Plain weaving is more commonly used, and twisted weaving is mostly used in very fine operations. Plain weaving is the superimposition of warp and weft of a single thread. While twisted weaving is the superposition of double thread warp and weft. The screen meshes woven by the two weaving methods are all square in shape. The wire mesh obtained by the twisted weave is thicker.

Like other screens, wire meshes are classified by mesh (the number of wires in the screen). Only square meshes are used in screen printing, not rectangular meshes. The square mesh has the same number of meshes and the same large mesh size in the length direction as in the width direction. Mesh count per inch or centimeter is the number of meshes from any one wire to 1 inch away.

For example: No. 80 wire mesh has 80×80 mesh holes per square inch, that is, 6400 mesh holes. No. 300 wire mesh has 300×300 mesh holes per square inch, that is, 90000 mesh holes mesh. Wire mesh is generally marked with the words "Number80" or "80×80", "Number165" or "165×165". Common wire mesh is 80 threads/inch (31 threads/cm) to 635 threads/inch (250 threads/cm).

However, coarser wire mesh is also commercially available. The lower the thread count of the screen, the larger the mesh. Conversely, the higher the thread count, the smaller the mesh. In wire mesh, the diameter of the wire is measured in inches or millimeters.