Wedge Wire and How it is Used

Wedge wire is a welded steel structure, consisting of V-shaped surface profiles that are resistance welded onto surface profiles. They are used mainly for separation, filtration and retention media. They exist in the following forms: 

• Flat screens
• Slot tubes
• Support tubes
• Continuous cylinders
• Cylinders and conical baskets
• Flat welded screens
• Looped screens

They are found in the following industries:

1. Waste water Treatment

Industries that deal with waste water need to be very careful. During heavy rainfall, sewer networks may get overloaded and may not transport the waste water to treatment plants effectively, leading to waste water overflow and pollution. By implementing waste water diversion wedge wire screens, overflows can be cleaned before they pollute receiving waters.

In the waste water treatment industry, profile wire screens are primarily used for:

• Water diversion, keep trash out of rivers, streams, sewers, fountains, etc. 
• Processing and water treatment
• Solids removal from process waste water
• Fruit and vegetable processing from waste water

2. Brewing Systems

For good separation of the contents of brew, wedge wire screens are used by providing a false bottom in a lauter tun. Its uses in this industry are:

• Lauter tun screens
• False bottom screens
• Mash tun screens

3. Refining

Profile wire screens are very accurate and are used a great deal in refining of crude oil. It is used in mist elimination applications for liquid removal from vapour streams and liquid-liquid separation technologies within the refining industry hence making good petroleum products.

4. Bio fuels

Bio fuels are derived from natural and organic resources that include solid biomass, liquid fuels and different types of bio gases. Profile wire screens are used in effective separation applications such as:

• ethanol purification
• vegetable oil processing
• methanol recovery

5. Fish Diversion

Wedge wire is used to make fish diversion screens. The non-corrosive stainless steel screens provide an environmentally safe method for diverting fish. These fish diversion screens are used in dam and river systems to protect fish from hydroelectric turbines and pumps.

6. Food Processing

In this industry, different profile wire screens are used to achieve different solutions.

Stainless steel sieve screens are used for:

• Processing sugar
• Processing corn for corn starch
• Sizing and washing potatoes, vegetable and cereal

Cylinders or half cylinders (added to an auger) are used for:

• Separating solids from liquids
• Screw press applications

Flat, framed or unframed wedge wire screen panels are used for:

• Fluid bed dryers or coolers
• Washing 
• Filtration
• Sizing and separation

7. Mining

The mining industries utilize wedge wire to a great deal. The screens used are sieve bends, flat panels, vibrator screens and centrifuge baskets.

Sieve bends are used to process coal, gravel, potash and taconite.
Centrifuge baskets are used to process coal, salt, potash, paper, pulp, sand and a variety of chemicals.