Pure Nickel Expanded Mesh — Made to Your Drawing for PEM & Alkaline Electrolyzer Flow Fields

ISO9001 Factory Direct | Since 2002 | N4/N6/Ni200 | Custom to Your Drawing | 5-Sheet Free Sample

Your electrolyzer cell design is proprietary. Your mesh specification is part of your IP. The last thing you need is a mesh supplier who tries to sell you whatever is sitting on their shelf. At Changzhou DLX Alloy Co., Ltd., we manufacture pure nickel expanded mesh to your technical drawing — not to our standard catalog. The sheet thickness, strand width, LWD, SWD, open area percentage, sheet outer dimensions, edge condition, surface roughness, flatness tolerance, and post-expansion heat treatment are all produced to match the values on your print. We hold the nickel chemistry from our own ingot, roll the sheet to your thickness in our own mill, slit and stretch to your LWD and strand geometry, anneal to your hardness specification, and inspect to your acceptance criteria. This is contract manufacturing for electrode components — not off-the-shelf mesh sales.

Expanded mesh leaves our expanding press with a characteristic surface — the strands show micro-roughness from the slitting and stretching process. For some electrolyzer applications, this as-expanded surface is ideal — it increases geometric surface area for catalyst adhesion. For others, it creates coating thickness variation that reduces catalyst utilization. We offer four surface conditions, selectable on your drawing:

• Your drawing, our process — no substitution, no "equivalent" — When your print calls for 0.25 mm sheet thickness with 0.6 mm strand width and 3.5 mm LWD at 45% open area, that is exactly what we make. We do not offer "close enough" and suggest you adjust your cell design. We adjust our tooling and process to match your design.
• Chemistry locked to your approved heat — Once your drawing-specified grade and chemistry range are qualified through your electrochemical testing, we reserve a specific nickel ingot heat for your production. The same melt chemistry runs through every sheet in your order. Your electrode overpotential does not drift because our nickel chemistry does not drift.
• Every parameter inspected, every sheet traceable — LWD, SWD, strand width, open area, thickness, flatness, dimensions, edge condition — measured and recorded per sheet or per sampling plan per your drawing requirements. When your customer audits your mesh supplier qualification records, the data exists and the documentation chain is complete.
• Scale-ready — the same die set that made your 50-sheet trial order makes your 5,000-sheet production order — No process migration to a different facility. No new tooling qualification. No "the production batch came from a different factory and performs differently" conversation with your stack engineering team.
• We speak electrolyzer — not just expanded metal — When you specify open area at 55% because your CFD model shows bubble release becomes the limiting factor above 400 mA/cm², we understand why. When you ask for edge condition inspection under magnification because a burr can cut a membrane that costs more than the entire mesh order, we understand why. This is electrode component manufacturing — not general expanded metal supply.
• No iron contamination — from ingot to electrode — Our melting, rolling, slitting, and expanding equipment is dedicated to nickel alloys. No carbon steel processing shares the line. No ferritic tooling contacts your nickel. When your post-mortem SEM-EDS analysis of a 10,000-hour operated electrode shows no iron enrichment at the surface, that is by design — not by luck.

In 2019, a European PEM electrolyzer manufacturer sent us a 3-page technical drawing for an expanded nickel mesh — sheet thickness 0.20 mm, strand width 0.5 mm, LWD 2.8 mm, open area 52%, N4 grade, bright annealed, flatness 0.15 mm per 100 mm, Ra 0.4–0.8 μm, sheet dimensions to their cell frame, burr-free edges. They had been buying this mesh from a general expanded metal supplier who met the dimensional spec but could not control the nickel chemistry or the surface iron contamination. Every batch required incoming inspection, and roughly 15% of batches were rejected for surface contamination found during their coating process qualification.

We looked at the drawing and realized: we already control the nickel chemistry from our own ingot. We already cold roll pure nickel strip to thickness tolerances tighter than 0.20 ±0.01 mm. We already anneal in controlled atmosphere for bright, oxide-free surface. What we did not have was the expanding press — so we invested in one. It took six months from equipment installation to first article approval on that customer's drawing. Their incoming rejection rate dropped from 15% to zero. That customer is still buying from us today, now at production volumes five times their 2019 requirement.

That is the business we are in. Not selling mesh. Solving the problem between your drawing and your electrode.

• 12,000 m² facility — integrated nickel melting, cold rolling, slitting, expanding, annealing, flattening, and inspection. Your mesh never leaves our quality system.
• Custom to drawing since 2019 — LWD 1.5–6.0 mm, strand 0.4–1.2 mm, open area 30–65%, sheet thickness 0.15–0.50 mm.
• ISO9001 with full melt-to-mesh traceability; SGS-accredited; BV and TÜV inspection available. Drawing-controlled manufacturing with first article inspection as standard.

Source: DLX Alloy product catalog. Chemistry certified from ingot through finished mesh — per your drawing requirements.

Third-party inspection by SGS, BV, or TÜV available. Drawing-controlled manufacturing with full documentation package on every shipment.

What file format do you need for the drawing?

PDF is preferred for initial review. DXF or DWG for tooling design if the mesh geometry is complex or includes features beyond standard expanded diamond pattern. For standard expanded mesh specifications, a dimensional table on the drawing is sufficient — we do not need a 3D model of the diamond geometry, though we accept them if you have them.

What if during manufacturing we discover a drawing parameter that is physically impossible?

This happens — typically when strand width and LWD are specified independently and the combination cannot be achieved with expanding tooling at the specified sheet thickness. Our engineering team flags the conflict during drawing review (Phase 1), before any metal is cut. We propose the nearest achievable combination with an explanation of the constraint. You decide whether to adjust the drawing or proceed with the achievable combination for trial evaluation.

Can you hold a tighter flatness tolerance than 0.2 mm per 100 mm?

For sheet thickness 0.20 mm and above, 0.15 mm per 100 mm is achievable with post-anneal flattening. Below 0.20 mm sheet thickness, the mesh becomes increasingly flexible and flatness measurement precision becomes the limiting factor rather than our capability. Contact us with your target tolerance and sheet thickness — we will confirm feasibility.

How do you handle drawing revisions?

Each drawing revision triggers a review against the previous revision. If the change is limited to sheet dimensions, no re-tooling is required — the new dimension is applied at the cutting stage. If LWD, SWD, or strand width change, new tooling may be required. We communicate the impact (tooling lead time, any cost change, re-qualification requirement) within 48 hours of receiving the revised drawing. All production after the revision date is manufactured to the new revision — the previous revision is archived in our document control system.

Do you accept OEM-specific quality requirements beyond ISO9001?

Yes. If your supplier quality manual requires specific inspection checkpoints, measurement methods, sampling plans, or documentation formats beyond our standard package, we incorporate them into your production process during qualification. Examples from existing customers: AS9102 First Article Inspection format, PPAP Level 3 documentation, customer-specific AQL sampling tables, and batch-level certificate of analysis with customer-defined format. Provide your supplier quality requirements with your drawing — we will confirm compliance scope during drawing review.