Roofing Materials
Roofing Materials are made from several types of materials. Wood Shingles are sawed from pine or red cedar. They must be chemically treated so that they achieve a fire-resistance rating comparable to other shingle types.
Asphalt Shingles cover about 80% of homes in the United States and are pretty popular due to being lightweight, low maintenance, budget-friendly, and the easy to install. Asphalt has been used as a building material for thousands of years. Many years ago, it was used as mortar between clay bricks and also as a waterproofing liner in canals. Asbestos was used in shingle mats until its health risks were brought to light. Improvements in the fiberglass matting have made them the most popular asphalt shingle base material in the industry since the late 1970’s. Asphalt shingles are sometimes called composite shingles. Their foundation is a base of either organic felt or fiberglass. Asphalt is a very thick hydrocarbon substance.
The Manufacturing Process
Asphalt shingles are produced by passing the base material through a machine that successively adds other components. The same machine can be used to make either shingles or rolled roofing.
Dry Looping:
A jumbo roll of either organic felt or fiberglass mat is mounted and def into the roofing machine. The same machine can be used to make either shingles or roll roofing.
Saturation:
The base material passes through a pre-saturation chamber, where it is sprayed on one side with hot asphalt to drive out and moisture that may be present. It then goes into a saturator tank filled with hot asphalt. Soaking in the asphalt coats the fibers within the mat and fills the voids between them.
Wet Looping:
The matting is again formed into accordion-like folds. While the asphalt coating on the mat cools, it is drawn into the felt, creating an even greater degree of saturation.
Coating:
Coating asphalt, which has been stabilized with powdered minerals, is applied to both surfaces of the mat. The mat passes between a pair of coating rolls, which are separated by an appropriate distance to ensure that the desired amount of coating asphalt is applied to the mat. This step may be sufficient to coat fiberglass filaments and fill voids between them and in this case the saturation and wet looping steps can be bypassed.
Mineral Surfacing:
Granules of ceramic-coated minerals of the desired color are applied to the top surface of the asphalt coated mat. A coating of fine particles of a mineral such as talc or mica is applied to the back surface of the mat. The sheet of treated mat then passes through a series of rollers that embed the coating particles in the asphalt and cool the material.
Finishing:
The strip of roofing material is accumulated, accordion-style, on a cooling looper to finish cooling.
Cutting:
The sheet of finished shingle material then passes into a cutting machine, where it is cut from the back side into the desired size and shape. The machine separates the shingles and stacks them in bundles. Bundles generally contain enough shingles to roof 25-35 sq. ft.
Packaging:
The bundles of shingles are transferred to equipment that wraps them and affixes labels.
If you would like to get an estimate to replace your shingled roof, call Middle Creek Roofing at 1-717-949-2414 and we would be happy to come out and provide you with a FREE estimate!
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