Reed Minerals Technology Center

Reed Minerals' Technology Center, which opened in 1999, is located at our corporate headquarters in Mechanicsburg, PA. The Technology Center spearheads Reed's quality control and product research and development operations. This includes carefully testing product samples produced from all of Reed's BLACK BEAUTY® production facilities for proper gradations, durability, and distribution of particles. The Technology Center also analyzes potential new raw materials supporting our ongoing efforts to complement and expand the current product offerings.

Creating new products

The Technology Center also performs product development and quality assurance functions on roofing granules and abrasives to assure a consistent product. Roofing products are one of the Technology Center's core competencies, and the Center was designed to give roofing customers the tools they need to enhance their existing products and create new products.

Partnering with customers

Our ability to work with the leading roofing shingle manufacturers on the design and color formulation of their shingle products is what makes Reed Minerals an attractive, full-service roofing granule supplier to the industry. A typical shingle contains a variety of colors or blends of colors to produce the desired "look". Color specifications in "runs" of shingles are so precise that the human eye cannot detect the variations. A computer is required to read and control the precise color hue and lightness.

Reed Minerals currently offers four basic colors of commercially demanded granule colors. At the Technology Center, Reed technicians take a base granule and add a ceramic coating containing pigments to achieve a specific color and look as required in the shingle product line.

Taking colored granule development to the next level

Working with a fully automated, state-of-the-art pilot shingle machine allows our technicians to take colored granule development to the next level. They can formulate granules with improved characteristics and introduce those granules into the pilot shingle line to produce a finished prototype shingle.

Reed's ability to produce small runs of actual shingles at the Technology Center has vaulted our company to the forefront of product development for the roofing industry. Thanks to our Technology Center's pilot roofing shingle machine, our roofing customers can partner with us to develop a specialized product, blending the granules they want to create a unique color granule appearance in their new roofing products.