Screen media is where specification meets wear budget. The right choice differs by deck, by cut and by feed — and the best answer is often a mix.
Start from the cut, not the catalogue
Woven wire gives the most open area and the sharpest cut per square metre — the default for clean, dry fractions. Polyurethane trades some open area for wear life that can be many times longer on abrasive feeds. Rubber shrugs off impact under the feed box where wire would peen and crack.
Mix media by zone
Most decks wear unevenly: the feed end takes impact, the discharge end does the fine sizing. Putting rubber at the feed end and wire or polyurethane downstream keeps the sharp cut where it matters and the wear life where the punishment is.
Mind open area when you switch
Swapping wire for polyurethane at the same aperture reduces open area, and the deck may need a coarser aperture or more screen length to hold throughput. Check the gradation after any media change — the specification lives on the weighbridge, not in the media catalogue.
Keep a media log per deck
Install date, aperture, material and the tonnage at replacement — one line per panel zone. After two campaigns the log tells you exactly which zones pay for premium media and which are fine in wire.
