A lot of industrial facilities, such as sewage plants and paper mills, take advantage of customized perforated metal screens for their filtration systems. Vegetable, fruit, poultry, meat, and fish processing plants often utilize customized screens and panels, including environmentally-conscious companies attempting to achieve certification as a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) facility.
Companies in these industrial sectors routinely find that the various uses of perforated metal panels can go a long way toward increasing facility efficiency, especially when the material used is fabricated from post-consumer recycled content.
The possible uses for architectural and industrial perforated metal panels are nearly endless. By punching holes into a piece of metal such as foil or steel, the panels can improve the acoustics of a space; be used for signage; serve architectural or artistic functions; and filter solids from liquids. Filtration plants require large screens in order to catch pieces of waste and require enough strength to withstand high levels of pressure and the fast-moving debris colliding against the panels. Yet these panels also need appropriately spaced perforations to allow the liquid water to pass – a balance that only a handful of fabricators can effectively provide.
The most skilled perforated metal fabricators are capable of customizing screens to suit most functional requirements of the plant. The screens can often be developed to meet the exact specifications of the plant’s architects and developers, with a maximum thickness of three-quarters of an inch. Many facilities use perforated metal screens as the covering for water intake systems which call for curved surfaces to regulate water flow. Architects can use a number of online tools to preview perforated metal designs in a variety of width and open space options.
Perforations can be made to precise measurements, sometimes to within a tenth of an inch. This provides architects with the flexibility that’s required when engineering complex filtration systems. The best perforated metal fabricators provide clients with a wide range of options of patterns, sizes, materials, and finishes and provide drawings and design plans to architects before an order is finalized.
The tools used for fabrication play a large role in the degree of customization that a perforating company can offer. As a rule of thumb, companies which offer at least 1,400 combinations of tools are a good bet when in the market for perforated screens and panels.
Using perforated metal panels is not only one of the best ways to equip an industrial facility for performance reasons, but the durability and efficiency that comes with installation means lower costs on maintenance, upkeep, and energy in the future. For this reason, many architects are becoming more and more inclined toward using perforated screens and panels in their designs.
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