The Plant Behind the Asphalt Shingle Industry

By Cass Jacoby, RCS Reporter. 

Learn about the small-town plant and process that supplies asphalt shingle granules across the country. 

Today, 3M is one of the world’s biggest manufacturers, offering thousands of diverse products, but about 120 years ago, it began its legacy with a mining operation in Minnesota. 3M is still mining today as part of its roofing granules business with its youngest mining facility just 19 years old located in Chatham County, North Carolina. 

“3M makes approximately 60,000 different products,” Blake Arnett, plant director at 3M’s Pittsboro site told Chatham News Record. “It’s been said that you can’t go anywhere in the civilized world for more than five minutes without touching one of our products.” 

The 95,000-square-foot facility just south of Pittsboro is one of the world’s leading suppliers of roofing granules to be used in the asphalt shingle industry. Blake explained to Chatham News Record that the “M” in 3M “stands for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing. “I joke around with the executives when they come to the plant. I tell them without the company’s industrial minerals products division they’d have to change their name to 2M.” 

Pittsboro may be the youngest of 3M’s mining facilities, but its product supplies buyers across the country. As the big construction boom continues, 3M is working around the clock to provide buyers with what they need. “We export approximately $175 million out of the state,” says Blake. 

The mining process begins with 3M’s quarry partner, Luck Stone, a “family owned and operated producer of crushed stone, sand and gravel,” according to the company’s website. 

“We own the land,” Blake told Chatham News Record, “but they mine that for us — do the blasting and that sort of stuff. And then with conveyor systems they’ll bring the rock over to our facility.” 

After Luck Stone delivers Andesite rock, the stone is crushed and screened for quality and whittled down to one-sixteenth of an inch around. Then 3M begins the coloring process, which is where the company really differentiates itself. 

“We add coloring to it and that’s where you get the black, red, blues and white and stuff like that,” Blake says. “And you know that color has got to stay on for 20, 30 years on your roof,  so that’s really where the 3M technology comes into place — it’s in that coloring process.” 

The stone is placed in a kiln to set once it has been dyed, then the finished product is placed in a shipping silo for delivery. 

3M remains prolific in its output as a major supplier for roofing granules. 

Stay up to date with the latest roofing industry news when you sign up for the RCS Week in Roofing e-news. 

Photo credit: Chatham News Record