enabling use of the tray in higher velocity towers application_number US 28329108 A description fig1 a and 1 b schematically depict the surface 12 of a typical prior art sieve tray 10 which is provided with a plurality of conventional circular openings 14 at fig1 a a 50 open surface is shown and at fig1 b a 56 open area note in fig1 a that with the 1 u215c inch openings shown the minimum distance between openings 14 is u215c inches while in fig1 b the minimum distance between openings 14 is reduced to u00bc inch note as well that the solid strip 14 defined between the openings varies in shape depending upon the point in the strip which is considered fig2 a and 2 b schematically depict the surface 18 of a sieve tray 16 which in accordance with the invention is provided with a plurality of hexagonally shaped openings 20 openings 20 are seen to be arranged into rows 22 and columns 24 each hexagonal opening is oriented with respect to each of its neighboring hexagonal openings so that opposed flat sides e g 26 and 28 of neighboring openings are parallel the closed area of tray 16 defined between the flat sides of the neighboring openings is a continuous strip 30 of constant width corresponding to the distance between the adjacent flat sides of neighboring openings the advantages gained by the invention will now be clear thus in fig2 a a 50 open area surface is shown the flat sides of the hexagons are exemplarily shown as 13 16 inches the distance between the closest points of neighboring openings is u215d inches u2014 considerably greater than the corresponding parameter in fig1 a in fig2 b a 56 open area.