COMPANY’S PRODUCTS ALL AROUND (AND UNDER) YOU

Monday, 06 February 2012 08:26

Name of Company: Continental Wire Cloth

City: Calgary

Website: www.cwcloth.com

Year Established: 1992

Number of Employees: 28

Chances are you’ve experienced Continental Wire Cloth’s products and not realized it.

The Calgary-based company specializes in woven wire mesh, commonly used in things made with asphalt, concrete, or pavement. Woven wire mesh has been used in swimming pools, concrete sewer lines, concrete floors—and even the overpass at CrossIron Mills shopping centre just north of Calgary.

Owen Motta, general manager of Continental Wire Cloth, explains the process: “We start from the ground. It then goes through a crushing machine and then it’s screened for different sizes [of mesh depending on the size of the gravel]. The specs are given by the government—certain specs for asphalt, certain specs for sidewalks; it all depends on the engineering.”

Continental Wire Cloth produces other products besides woven wire mesh, though, including:

• Safety mesh, which used for schools and other structures on windows to protect from vandalism and break-ins.
• Wire, which, depending on diameter, can be used for tying, wrapping, fabrication and forming as part of a larger project. Also it is used for clips, pins and hooks.
• Woven wire screen, which has a multitude of uses including water intake screens, machinery guards and canopy guards on heavy equipment.
• Expanded metal, which goes through a process where a single piece of sheet metal is slit and drawn to produce truck guards, ramps, stairs, walkways, fan guards, railing, machinery guards, cages, baskets, shelving, greenhouse beds and duct covers.
• Perforated metal that is used for screening or decorative purposes and made from mild steel, abrasive resistant plate, stainless steel, aluminium, brass and, yes, rubber.
• Safety grating that is used to make pedestrian walkways, stair treads and platform applications.

Welded wire mesh, which is used for animal cages, warehouse partitions, fan and light guards, stair tread, and balcony railings.