Panel width
2400 mm.
Panel height
2000–3600 mm.
Tensile strength
500–550 MPa.
Fence posts
Finished type
358 mesh fence top
Barbed wire or razor wire.
Surface treatment
Hot-dip galvanized or powder-coated.
Accessories
40 × 6 mm flat bar clamp, galvanized M8 cup head bolts.
Colour
Green, black, grey, yellow.
Standard
AS 2423-2002, AS/NZS 4534.
Package
Packed with plastic film, then stored and transported on wooden pallets or according to your requirement.
First, you need to know why it's called 358 mesh. To begin with, it's all about dimensions. The standard mesh aperture size for prison mesh fencing is 3 inches wide by 0.5 inches high, and it's made from 8-gauge wire. So, when the product was named, it was named for the dimensions of the mesh.
358 mesh is a particular product, and each wire intersection needs to be welded, so it wouldn't be feasible to do this by hand! Instead,358 mesh manufacturers have large machines that precisely position and electrically weld each wire intersection. This ensures that every wire is perfectly spaced and every joint on the panel is securely welded.
358 mesh fence is usually made from mild steel wire, but various wire coating options exist. You could choose an ordinary galvanized panel for noncorrosive environments, or you could opt for a hot dip galvanized panel. There are also zinc alum panels, which are coated with a corrosion-resistant mixture of aluminium and zinc. These are usually better for highly corrosive environments.
There is also a variety of paint and powder coating finishes available. These are applied after the panels are made and over the galvanizing or zinc alum. Panels can usually be coated in a wide variety of standard and custom colours, depending on the volume being ordered.
One of the biggest challenges to designing, manufacturing and installing a 358 mesh fence is the weight of the panels. This is about 9.6 kilograms per square meter of the panel. That's over 21 lbs!
A standard 2.4 × 2.4m or 8× 8' panel will weigh 55.57 kilograms or over 122 lbs. This means that the fence structure needs to be designed to carry a lot of weight, and it can be tricky to get the fence panels into the correct position and hold them there while you fasten them in place.
In some parts of the world, a standard 358 mesh prison mesh fencing panel might not be enough to secure a site. Which is why some companies developed"double skin" panels. These panels have a second "layer" of wires welded to each side, dramatically reducing the aperture size and making the panels much heavier and more robust. In most cases, an ordinary 358 mesh fence will do the job well. But it's nice to know there are alternatives if you need them!
Yes, in theory, you can curve 358 mesh panels, and there are fence systems like the bowed fence or curved fence systems installed at prisons in South Africa and elsewhere where that is done.
The general rule of thumb is that if you want to curve panels, they should be along the standard "height" of the panel, " and the curve's radius should be large and gentle.
If you want to install a bowed 358 fence, it's an excellent idea to defer to the experts for design and specifying advice. This is a challenging task!
There are many kinds of structures that could be used for 358 mesh fence systems, such as:
Angle iron posts and top and bottom rails with a flat bar cover strip bolted over the panel intersection at posts to fix panels in place. ● Square posts with custom-designed fence brackets. ● IPE posts with flat bar cover strips.
Round posts with inserts and cover strips.
Because of the weight of 358 mesh fence panels, standard fence structural components will not be strong enough for this kind of fence. If you plan to install a fence like this, you should get advice on engineering the structure properly.
Yes. Any fence can be cut. However, it's much harder to cut 358 mesh fence than other fence types.
First, there's the problem of space. You need space to get wire cutters around wires, and with only 0.5" between wires on a 358-mesh fence, there's not much of that. Then there's the wire itself. It's over 4mm or eight gauges thick. This means you would struggle to cut them by hand, and even if you only had to create a 12" hole, you'd have to cut 24 wires on only one side! That would take a long time, and site security will likely catch up to you already.
However, if someone had an angle grinder and the time to make a lot of noise and sparks cutting through the fence, they could do you would be able to see the hole instantly, though there's no disguising a hole in a high security welded mesh fence! Most sites that use 358 mesh fencing need to give people more time to do that, though, and that kind of noise and disruption would almost certainly be spotted.
So, can you cut a 358 fence? Yes.In theory. But you probably wouldn't be able to do it without being caught, not with hand tools.
358 fence, or prison mesh fencing as it's known in some parts of the world, is often marketed as a high-security anti-climb mesh fence. That doesn't mean that it can't be climbed at all. But it is much more complicated than climbing any other kind of fence, and again, it's all about the mesh aperture. It's tough for most people to get their fingers into a 0.5mm gap and get enough grip to climb! Of course, if you had a ladder, which would be fine, but since most 358 mesh fence are installed with top fence security like razor coils or electric fence, you'd still need help to get over quickly.
Many challenges are involved in installing 358 fences, which is why the labour costs are also higher for this type of fence.
If your fence structure uses holes with predrilled or pre-slotted holes, you need to make sure that they are installed at the right height, and of course, they need to be ultimately plumb to ensure that panel wires, cover strips, and posts line up correctly.
Posts must also be installed at the right centres to ensure that all the holes, wires and bolts are lined up.
Then there's the issue of slopes.358 mesh fence are rigid, so they don't do well on sloped sites. It would be best to cut the panels to follow slopes and use techniques like stepping to get the fence to follow a gradient.
358 mesh fence systems are designed to be security fences, so you will struggle to find them in anything under 3m in height unless you have them specially made or cut to size. They can go up to 2.4m or 8',3m or 10' or 3.6 m or 12' high in most standard sizes, and they can be specially made at other heights for unique systems like bowed fences. Usually, the panel width is designed for post spacing of 2.4m/8 or 3m/10', but there might be other options.
Hopefully, you know more about the 358 mesh fence now, but you should know one more thing. This is a highly technical fence system and should not be installed by any contractors who don't specialize in this type of system. It requires a high level of precision, and in the hands of the untrained, it can be challenging to get prison mesh fencing right. So, choose the correct specification and contractor for the job.
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