M 279
Standard Specification for
Zinc-Coated (Galvanized) Steel Woven Wire Fence Fabric
1. SCOPE
1.1 This specification covers zinc-coated
steel fence fabric suitable for such uses as
farm-field, railroads, and high-way right-
of-way and similar fencing, having a
series of horizontal (line) wires with
vertical (stay) wires woven or wrapped
around the line wires, forming rectangu-
lar openings. This specification covers
various fabric designs, three tensile
strength grades, and appropriate zinc
coating weight classifications for woven
wire fence fabric.
1.2 The values stated in inch-pound units
are to be regarded as the standard. The
values given in parentheses are for in-
formation only.
2. REFERENCED DOCUMENTS
2.1 AASHTO Standards:
M 120 Zinc (slab zinc)
T 65 Weight of Coating on Zinc-
Coated (Galvanized) Iron or
Steel Articles
T 244 Mechanical Testing of Steel
Products
2.2 ASTM Standards:
A 700 Recommended Practice for
Packaging, Marking, and
Loading Steel Products for
Domestic Shipment
2.3 U.S. Federal Standard:
Fed. Std. Nº 123 Marking for
Shipments (Civil Agencies)
2.4 U.S. Military Standards:
MLD-STD-129 Marking for Ship-
ment and Storage
MIL-STD-163 Steel Mill Products,
Preparation for Shipments
and Storage
3. CLASSIFICATION
3.1 Fabric Designs—The wire fabric
shall be furnished in one of the several
fabric designs in accordance with Figure
1 or Figure 2 (line wire spacings) and
Table 1 (stay wire spacings and wire
sizes).
SPECIFICATIONS FOR MATERIALS
AASHTO DESIGNATION: M 279-89
(ASTM DESIGNATION: A 116-87)
3.2 Tensile Strength Grades—The wire
fabric shall be furnished in one of three
grades (Grade 60, Grade 125, and Grade
175) according to line wire tensile
strength in conformance with Table 2.
There are no tensile strength require-
ments for vertical stay wires in woven
fence fabric.
3.3 Zinc Coating Classes—The wire
fabric shall be furnished with Class 1 or
Class 3 zinc coating weight for Grade 60
and Class 3 zinc coating weight for
Grades 125 and 175 in accordance with
Table 3.
4. ORDERING INFORMATION
4.1 Orders for material purchased under
this specification shall include the
following information.
4.1.1 Quantity of each type of steel
woven wire fence fabric (number of
rolls),
4.1.2 Name of Material (Steel Woven
Wire Fence Fabric),
4.1.3 Design Number (Section 3.1),
4.1.4 Tensile strength grade (Section
3.2),
4.1.5 Class of coating weight (Section
3.3),
4.1.6 Certification, if required (Section
14), and
4.1.7 AASHTO designation and year
of issue.
4.2 All rolls of fence fabric accepted by
the purchaser shall be billed on the basis
of the original length of the rolls before
sampling unless changed by contractual
arrangement. Fabric covered in this
specification shall be furnished in 20-rod
(101-m) rolls.
NOTE 1—A typical ordering description is as
follows: 60 rolls Steel Woven Wire Fabric,
1047-6-1 ½, Grade 60, Class 1 Coating, Certi-
fied, to AASHTO M 279
5. MATERIALS AND MANUFAC-
TURE
5.1 The base metal of the fabric shall be a
good commercial quality of steel wire.
5.2 Zinc-Coated Wire—The wire shall be
zinc coated before fabrication
5.3 Zinc for Coating—Slab Zinc, when
used for coating, shall be any grade of the
zinc conforming to Specification M 120.
484
M 279
6. WORKMANSHIP, FINISH, AND
APPEARANCE
6.1 Splicing of individual line wires by
means of a wrap joint, mechanical fas-
teners, or an electric butt weld is permit-
ted. The maximum number of line wire
splices or joints shall not exceed one-half
of the number of line wires in any 20-rod
(101-m) roll of fabric. Such splices or
joints shall be made in a workman-like
manner and welded joints shall be coated
with zinc to provide corrosion protection
equivalent to the zinc-coated wire.
6.2 The woven wire fabric shall have
uniformly wrapped joints and all stay
wires shall be properly spaced and sub-
stantially perpendicular to the line wires.
7. DIMENSIONS AND PERMISSI-
BLE VARIATIONS
7.1 Wire.
7.1.1 Size—The size of the zinc-coated
wire listed for design numbers in Table 1
and expressed in terms of steel wire gage,
shall conform to the diameters given in
Tables 2 and 3, within permissible varia-
tions listed in Table 4.
7.1.2 Test Method—Using a microme-
ter or other suitable instrument, deter-
mine the greatest and least measurement
at the same cross section, with each
measurement to the nearest 0.001 in.
(0.03 mm). The average of these two
measurements shall be considered the
diameter of the test specimen.
7.1.3 Out-of-Roundness—Due to the
mechanics of the manufacturing process,
a certain amount of out-of-roundness can
be expected on stay wires of the finished
fence fabric. No limits are placed on out-
of-roundness of wire in the fence fabric.
7.2 Fabric:
7.2.1 The height of the fence fabric
(center-to-center distance between top
and bottom wires) shall not vary more
than 1 in. (25 mm). The height of woven
wire fabric is based on the sum of the line
SPECIFICATIONS FOR MATERIALS
wire spacing shown in Figures 1 or 2 and
not the height as designated in the tables.
7.2.2 The tolerance for individual line
and stay wire spacing shall be ½ in. (12.4
mm). This does not alter the overall
height of the fabric as designated in
Section 7.2.1.
7.2.3 The length of fence fabric in a
roll shall be 20 rods (101 m) — 0 + 3
percent.
8. WEIGHT OF COATING
8.1 On Grade 60 fence fabric, the weight
of the coating for the various sizes of
wire composing the fabric shall be in
accordance with the requirements of
Table 3 for the coating class specified by
the purchaser.
8.2 On Grade 125 and 175 fence fabric,
the weight of the coating for the various
sizes of wire composing the fabric shall
be Class 3 as specified in Table 3.
8.3 The zinc-coated wire as represented
by the test specimens obtained in Section
10 shall be tested in accordance with
Method T 65.
9. BREAKING STRENGTH
9.1 The line wires as represented by the
test specimens selected and tested in
accordance with Section 10 and Method
T 244 shall conform to the requirements
of Table 2 for minimum breaking
strength of the size and grade specified.
10. SAMPLING
10.1 Samples—For the purpose of
tests, one roll from every 50 rolls or
fraction thereof in a lot shall be selected
at random, or a total of seven rolls,
whichever is less. A lot shall consist of
all the rolls of a single design, grade, or
coating class of fence fabric offered for
delivery at the same time.
10.2 Test Specimens for Weight of
Coating-A length of fence fabric, ap-
proximately 3 ft (1 m) long, shall be cut
from the end of the sample roll to include
at least three of the vertical (stay) wires.
The test specimens for weight of coating
determination shall consist of a number
of lengths cut from a single wire, exclud-
ing all wire knots, wraps, and welded
sections, such that the total length of wire
tested is a minimum of 12 in. (305 mm)
in accordance with the section on wire
tests of T 65. At least six test specimens
shall be tested for weight of coating in
accordance with Section 8.3. selected as
follows:
10.2.1 One specimen from the top or
bottom wires,
10.2.2 Three specimens from horizontal
(line) wires other than the top or bottom
wires, and
10.2.3 Two specimens from vertical
(stay) wires.
10.3 Test Specimens for Tensile
Strength of Line Wires-An approximately
12 in. (300 mm) length shall be cut from
the horizontal (line) wires excluding
knots, wraps, and welds. At least four test
specimens shall be tested for tensile
strength in accordance with Section 9.1
selected as follows:
10.3.1 One specimen from the top or
bottom wires, and
10.3.2 Three specimens from the hori-
zontal (line) wires other than the top or
bottom wires.
10.4 Instead of testing wire from the
completed fence fabric in accordance
with Section 10.2 or 10.3, the manufac-
turer may elect to establish compliance
with Sections 8 and 9 of this specification
by tests made on wire prior to fabrication.
If the manufacturer makes this election,
the purchaser still reserves the right to
test wire from the completed fence fabric.
11. RETESTS AND REJECTION
11.1 Should one or more of the test
specimens from a sample roll of fence
fabric fail the weight-of-coating test, or
the breaking strength test, the lot shall be
subjected to retests. For retest purposes,
four additional rolls for each 50 rolls
offered shall be sampled. The lot size
then becomes 50. Test specimens shall be
cut in accordance with Sections 10.2 or
10.3 as appropriate.
11.2 Should more than four of the 24
retest specimens for weight-of-coating
fail to meet the requirements of Table 3,
or if any of the retest specimens has less
than 75 percent of the specified coating
weight, the entire lot represented by the
retest specimens may be rejected.
485
M 279 SPECIFICATIONS FOR MATERIALS

TABLE 1 Design Numbers for Woven Wire Fence Fabric

486
M 279 SPECIFICATIONS FOR MATERIALS

TABLE 2 Breaking Strength of Line Wires 13. REJECTION AND REHEARING

NOTE-There is no breaking strength requirement for stay wires.
Size, Steel Wire Tensile Strength Nominal Diameter, Min Breaking Strength Line
Gage Grade, Kai in. (mm) Waves Only, lbf (Newton) 13.1 Material that fails to conform to
9 60 (60) 0.148 (3.77) 1.030 (4,590) the requirements of this specification
10 60 (60) 0.135 (3.43) 860 (3,820)
may be rejected. Rejection should be
10 1/2 125 (125) 0.128 (3.25) 1.610 (7,160)
11 60 (60) 0.120 (3.05) 685 (3,050) reported to the producer or supplier
12 1/2 60 (60) 0.099 (2.51) 460 (2,050) promptly and in writing. In case of dis-
12 1/2 125 (125) 0.099 (2.51) 960 (4,280) satisfaction with the results of the test,
12 1/2 175 (175) 0.099 (2.51) 1.345 (5,990) the producer or supplier may make claim
14 1/2 60 (60) 0.076 (1.93) 270 (1,210) for a rehearing.
14 1/2 125 (125) 0.076 (1.93) 565 (2,520)

TABLE 3 Weight of Coating on Zinc-Coated Fence Fabric 14. CERTIFICATION

NOTE-Coating wt. applies to both horizontal (line) and vertical (stay) wires. Class 1 applies to
Grade 60 only.
Mn. wt of Coating oz/ft2 (g/m3) of Uncoated Wire Surface 14.1 When specified in the purchase
Size Steel Wire Diameter, in. order or contract, a producer's or sup-
Class 1 Class 3
Gage (mm)
(Grade 60) (Grades 60, 125, and 175) plier's certification shall be furnished to
Nº 9 0.148 (3.76) 0.40 (122) 0.80 (244) the purchaser that the material was
Nº 10 0.135 (3.43) 0.30 (92) 0.80 (244) manufactured, sampled, tested, and
Nº 10 ½ 0.128 (3.25) 0.30 (92) 0.80 (244) inspected in accordance with this specifi-
Nº 11 0.120 (3.05) 0.30 (92) 0.80 (244) cation and has been found to meet the
Nº 12 ½ 0.099 (2.51) 0.30 (92) 0.80 (244)
Nº 14 ½ 0.076 (1.93) 0.20 (61) 0.60 (183)
requirements. When specified in the
purchase order or contract, a report of the
test results shall be furnished.
TABLE 4 Permissible Variation of Wire 12. INSPECTION
Diameter
Permissible
15. PACKAGING AND PACKAGE
Size. Steel Wire Gage Variations. in. 12.1 Unless otherwise specified in the MARKING
(mm) purchase order or contract, the manufac-
Nos. 9 to 11 incl ± 0.005 (0.13) turer is responsible for the performance 15.1 Unless otherwise specified, pack-
Nos. 12 ½ to 14 ½ incl ± 0.004 (0.10) of all inspection and test requirements aging, marking, and loading for shipment
specified in this specification. Except as shall be in accordance with ASTM A
otherwise specified in the purchase order 700.
11.3 Should more than 3 of 16 retest
or contract, the manufacturer may use
specimens for breaking strength fail to 15.2 When specified in the contract or
any suitable facilities for the performance
meet the requirements of Table 2, of if order, and for direct procurement by a$
of the inspection and test requirements
any of the retest specimens has less than direct shipment to the U.S. Government,
unless disapproved by the purchaser at
90 percent of the specified breaking when Level A is specified, preservation,
the time the order is placed. The pur-
strength, the entire lot represented by the packaging, and packing shall be in accor-
chaser shall have the right to perform any
retest specimens may be rejected. dance with the Level A requirement of
of the inspection and tests set forth in this
11.4 Instead of rejecting the entire lot specification when such inspections and MIL-STD-163.
as provided for in Section 11.2 or 11.3, tests are deemed necessary to assure that 15.3 When specified in the contract or
the producer may test specimens from the material con-forms to prescribed order, and for the direct procurement by
every roll as provided for in Section 10.2 requirements. or direct shipment to the U.S. Govern-
or 10.3 and resubmit those rolls meeting ment, marking for shipment in addition to
specification requirements. requirements specified in the contract or
order, shall be in accordance with MIL-
STD-129 for U.S. military agencies and
in accordance with Fed. Std. Nº 123 for
U.S. Government civil agencies.

487