Investigating the behavior of droplets impacting on stainless steel wire mesh is of great importance. Previous studies focused on the impact phenomena of a whole wire mesh, without detailed function of each composing unit. In this work, the impact on two basic units of the single fiber and the intersection of two crossing fibers was systemically investigated. The dispersion processes of the droplets were recorded by a high-speed camera at various conditions of the droplet velocities, initial droplet sizes, and impacted object shapes. Three dripping modes of one-drop, double-drop, and ligament were observed when droplets impact on one single fiber. Two disintegration modes of four-part and two part were found with crossing fibers. Correlations of the maximum spreading length of the droplet on the fiber of wire mesh were proposed, and the predicted values were in a good agreement with the experimental values. The mathematical models of the boundaries between different modes were established based on the force analysis of the droplet impacting on the mesh units. (C) 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.