Forming expanded mesh sheet from deformable strip

An apparatus for expanding metal strip comprising, in combination, a first pair of opposed rolls each having means for concurrently slitting and preforming at least a portion of said strip to provide a plurality of longitudinally extending strand-like components, said strand-like components comprising slit segments deformed out of the plane of the strip and unslit segments retained in the plane of the strip, said slit and deformed segments severed from laterally adjacent segments and substantially convexly curved from the plane of the strip whereby slit segments in laterally adjacent components extend from opposite sides of the plane of the strip and said unslit segments retained in the plane of the strip together define continuous bands extending laterally across the said portion of the strip, a second pair of opposed rolls each having means for slitting the strip at alternate bands to extend the slits in a staggered relation, and means for expanding the slit and preformed portion of the strip to form meshes by drawing opposite longitudinal edges of the strip apart whereby the curved segments are substantially straightened to form webs of the mesh joined by nodes formed by unslit portions of the bands.