Perforated Sheets & Plates
Perforated Sheets and plates are widely used for belt and machine guards, ventilators, screens and strainers filters, trays and cabinets, grilles - and a variety of ornamental purposes. Cole quickly furnishes all popular patterns and sizes to meet your needs. Holes can be round, square, hex, or decorative. Material can be steel, stainless, aluminum, or nickel alloys. Thicknesses range from 24 gauge to 1" plate.
Please refer to image gallery for hole shape and measurement references, along with our size chart, here.
Measurements in Perforated Sheets
Hole Center
The hole center refers to the distance between the center of one hole and the center of the nearest hole in the next adjacent row. It’s one of two ways to measure perforation spacing—the other being open area. Since hole center and open area essentially measure the same property (perforation spacing), specifying either one is sufficient.
Open Area
Open area is the total area of the holes divided by the total area of the sheet and is expressed as a percent. In other words, open area describes how much of a sheet is occupied by holes.
If a perforated sheet has 60 percent open area, then 60 percent of the sheet is holes and 40 percent is material.
Thickness or Gauge
Thickness is the measurement from the top surface to bottom surface of the material. Gauge is the most common measurement, but thickness can also be measured in fractional inches or millimeters.
Hole Size
Hole size is the diameter of the perforation. Cole carries and can special order a wide range of round hole sizes (from 0.027 to 1.5 inches.)