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Shingle Knives

Reichel & Drews Knows Shingle Knives Better than Anyone

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Reichel & Drews is the premier designer and supplier of shingle knives. No one knows shingle cutting better than Reichel & Drews.

A team of more than 20 engineers and specialists are dedicated to Reichel & Drews knife business. This team spends every day investigating technologies and materials to make knives last longer and chip less, to make reknifing a cylinder faster and easier and improve uptime no matter what raw materials and thickness you run. Every knife that ships from Reichel & Drews is made and inspected on site by our experts.

Whether you are running strip or laminated shingles, BUR and other roll products or modified bitumen, Reichel & Drews’ knives are made from the longest lasting alloy steel available and hand ground to exacting standards.

Knives Engineered for Reliability and Long Life

• Laminated
• Specialty Designer
• Strip
• Slitters
• Cut to Length

When evaluating knife life, comparative operating speed and web thickness should also be taken into consideration.

Knives
Installation:

• All the knives should be firmly seated.
• When tightening the wedge screws, avoid tipping the knife with the wedge blocks.
• Be sure to use full-sized filler blocks in the punch knives in order to avoid tipping the knife legs in.
• Allow a 0.002" - 0.005" gap between the land of a slitter knife and the tip of a hook of any adjoining crosscut or punch knife.
• Allow a 0.002"- 0.005" gap between the tip of a crosscut hook and the "U" portion of a punch knife.

Knife Failure and/or Abnormal Wear
If all mechanical items have been checked and are in good operating order, a cracked, chipped, or broken knife might be attributed to an error in the cutting cylinder adjustment, the presence of a foreign object, or the knife itself.

R&D will work with you to resolve any problem with your knifes or cutting cylinder parts.

Raw Materials

Knife wear is affected and can be accelerated by different types of raw material - i.e. sand backing causes knives to wear much faster than talc backing. Different sized granules and granule sources also have an effect on the life of a set of knives. Other factors affecting the rate of knife wear include the percent of filler content, the nature of the filler, and of course the prominence (and type) of fiberglass mat used in today's products. The last factor mandates greater care and finer adjustment of the cutting cylinder in relation to the anvil roll.

Maintenance

Lubrication of various types affects how well knives will perform. The cutting cylinder should be kept properly lubricated using only the manufacturer's recommended lubricant. Additionally, an ample water spray must be applied to the cutting cylinder face, and in some cases a light application of moisture of the anvil roll is helpful. This should be started even before the threading process is begun.

 

Cutting Cylinder and Shingle Knife Operating Tips

Anvil Roll Assembly (PDF)

Check anvil roll assembly for:

• Level and perpendicular alignment with the shingle cutter.
• Roundness using a dial indicator.
• Worn journals. Check anvil roll journals against manufacturer's recommended tolerance.
• Worn anvil rings. If the rings are excessively worn or have variances in the O.D., replace or regrind.
• Bearing play. If core, journals, and rings are within tolerance, use a prybar and dial indicator to check anvil roll for play in any direction.
• Fit. Check for bearing fit into bearing housing and bearing housing to shingle cutter frame for bearing wear and housing wear.

Cutting Cylinder
Tab Ejector Mechanism. The internal parts of the cutting cylinder should be checked regularly. These include the eccentric bearings, eccentric shaft, collector rings, plungers, plunger holes or bushings, and plunger springs if used.

Knife Holding System
It is important that the cutting cylinder knife holding system be kept in "like-new" condition. If knife seats become worn or grooved, a new set of knives will give different cutting heights.

Installation into Shingle Cutter
When a cutting cylinder is raised into position it is important that the axis of the cylinder be parallel with the axis of the anvil roll.

Shingle Cutter Carriage (for Universal Shingle Cutter).
When the shingle cutter carriage is raised into place, it is important that the four corners of the carriage that meet the cutter frame are equally tight against the frame and the locating pins and mating block at the top corners of the carriage provide a snug fit.