The history of welded mesh abroad

The situation in Europe

Welded steel wire mesh was invented in abroad at the beginning of this century, and then the standard weld lines were established in America, Germany and England, especial these lines did a great works at the European instauration period after World War II.
It has been more than 70 years since welded steel wire mesh appeared in Europe.  The standard of mesh was made first in 1923, Germany. At first the row material is the common low carbon hot rolled smooth wires, then turned into cold rolled smooth bar. In 1968, German developed cold rolled ribbed bar, and since then become the main row material of mesh. The diameter of mesh is from 4-12mm, the general tensile strength is about 550N/mm2, The German steel rebar and mesh standard have an important influence on the development and application of mesh in Europe.
The capacity of production of mesh is about 55% of the world capacity. Statisticed by JAGER, Germany, shows the percentage of the mesh to the total reinforce steel bar (including mesh plus steel bar), in ten European countries in 1994, this as given as table 1.
Some of countries which apply many mesh , such as Germany etc ,has changed the early cold rolled smooth welded mesh into the latest cold rolled ribbed welded mesh, at the same time the application scope has also extended from the main slab to multi-kind types. The mesh can be bended to many type of states by bend machine to fit for the demand which the situation need.　　
　　In additional, steel cages can be produced by automatic steel-weld equipment, in Europe, the arrange of diameter of cage from 4m to 12m, which is welded by means of electric resistance spot-welding. It has many advantages such as: high production efficiency, accurate dimension, and good welding properties. The type of the cages may be round, ellipse, square, rectangle, triangle or hexagon etc, which can be used in much concrete construction, such as water pipe, prestressing force concrete pipe, prestressing force concrete pole or electronic pole and so on. 
The development of mesh in Europe America and Asia and Pacific region
It was the year 1916 that America began to try to use welded steel wire mesh in the concrete road. The construction performance of concrete components had been researched many times during the 1930’s. Which constitute the mesh standard .the welding mesh is specified in the technical specification for building construction, and edited the manual of the mesh. The maximum diameter of the mesh can be 16mm, now the mesh was applied not only in the prefabricate components, but also in the concrete slab.
    Welded steel wire fabric has been developing in Asia and Pacific Ocean region. The mesh standard was made in Japan in 1960, which is specified in the design specification of concrete and was expensively applied in the concrete slab, so is the Australia, the percentage of mesh is 35%. In Singapore the mesh was applied early, the first mesh factory found in 1957,and now there are three larger factories, in this country, and the production capacity is 25 thousands tons, the proportion of application of mesh is about 24 percent, which is one of the countries which apply mesh in Asia. The standard (9) was revised several times, almost all the constructions of civil building slab, column, wall etc use welded mesh. To improve the speed of construction, the cage also uses mesh, the mesh was bend three sides, then was carry to the site, the length of each is 1-2 m, and then placed into the main beam and cover, it is very convenient for constructing.
 Of course this cages suit for the Singapore’s low anti-earthquake grades, the maximum diameter of mesh is 13mm of cold rolled bar ,25mmof hot rolled smooth steel bar. The welded mesh is common in using in Malaysia , which 18 mesh factory, the productions of per year is 300,000tons , which apply in multi-floor building ,wall and express way. Others countries such as Indonesia, Pakistan, Thailand, etc also set up mesh factories.
　　  See from the development form of the abroad, welded mesh is applied not only at the developmental countries, but also at developing country application gradually.
Some of countries reinforcing bar welding mesh standard is as follows:

1） ISO6935-3（1992）      ISO 6935-3
2） England BS4438( Use for reinforcing steel mesh of concrete)
3） Germany (Reinforcing steel fabrics, reinforcing steel ; dimensions and masses.)
4）Austria OENORM4200 the 7 parts (enhance the concrete).
5） the United States ASTMA185（1985）
6） Malaysia MS145 （1985）6)
7） the Singapore light SS32 transforms（1986）(1985)7)