The expanded metal process was invented by John French Golding in 1884. His goal was to
create a tray, or metal screen, with which miners in the United
Kingdom could sort coal. His expanded metal screen was preceded by
sorting tools made from metal strip or woven wire. These tools were
largely inefficient and not standardized. Also, they were not
terribly strong. Golding’s invention was made not from multiple
strips or wires, but rather from a single metal sheet. This made
them more durable than the other sorting tools. In addition, the
expanded metal process yields screens with uniform open areas.
Five years after inventing metal expansion, Golding and a group of other people in the industry pooled their
expertise and research to form their own company. They first named
it the British Metal Expansion Company, then later changed it to
the Expanded Metal Company Limited, of London. For a number of
years, the Expanded Metal Company had a monopoly on metal expansion
in Europe, as they owned sole rights to the process.
In the 1890s, Eli Hendrick, an American, invented the punching machine, the
predecessor of modern perforating punches. Perforating punches
allow for the creation of perforated metals, which are expanded
metals’ close relative.
The first person to receive a patent to expand metal in the United States was a man named Charles H. Schrammel. Awarded
the patent in 1910, his work stood out for its improvements to the
metal expansion process. These improvements included the
introduction of sheet metal rolling to the process and changing the
angle of metal mesh dividers so that the process would yield better
textures for gripping.
Though over 100 years have passed since then, little has changed in the metal expansion process,
aside from changes brought about by advances in technology. Such
advances include automation, the invention of digital perforation,
the formation of standards organizations, and the introduction of
CNC machining. Though plastics have caused somewhat of a
diminishment of the expanded metals market, it is still thriving.
Also, thanks to people recently showing a renewed interest in older
style architecture, architectural perforated metals and expanded
metals have become popular once again, and the expanded metal
products industry has seen an uptick in business.
