Woven wire mesh and sintered mesh both filter with stainless steel, but they behave very differently. Choosing the right one controls your filtration rating, mechanical strength and price. Here is how we help customers decide.
Woven wire mesh
Woven mesh is a single layer of warp and weft wires. It is economical, offers high open area and good flow, and forms easily into discs, cylinders and caps. It suits coarse-to-medium filtration, screening, and applications where the mesh is supported. Its limitation: a single layer can distort under high differential pressure, and its rating is fixed by the weave.
Sintered wire mesh
Sintered mesh is several layers of woven cloth bonded under heat and pressure into a rigid, permanent structure. This gives a precise, stable micron rating, high mechanical strength, and resistance to pressure surges — the layers cannot shift. It is cleanable and reusable, which suits backwash filters, fluidised beds, and polymer and hydraulic filtration.
Head-to-head
| Priority | Winner |
|---|---|
| Precision / stable rating | Sintered |
| High or fluctuating pressure | Sintered |
| Cleanable, long-life, reusable | Sintered |
| Lowest cost | Woven |
| Maximum flow / open area | Woven |
| Easy forming into shapes | Woven |
The multilayer middle ground
Many real assemblies combine both: a fine woven filtration layer on one or more coarse woven layers for support — the same idea as sintered mesh, but not always fully bonded. This gives much of sintered’s stability at lower cost, and is common in filter cartridges and pressure discs.
How to decide
- If your part is supported and cost is critical, woven mesh usually wins.
- If you need a guaranteed micron rating under high or fluctuating pressure — or a filter that is cleaned and reused for years — sintered (or a bonded multilayer) is worth the premium.
Rating language matters here: sintered media gives a much more absolute cut than a single woven layer at the same nominal micron — see mesh count vs. micron rating. We build both in-house — see our capabilities.
Tell us your pressure, temperature and rating target and we will recommend woven, sintered, or a multilayer build. Request a Quote →