Roll slitting is a technique heavily used by Converters (industry). The converter industry normally refers to companies who print, coat and laminate materials. A typical converter is a company manufacturing producing flexible packaging material for packaging food. This may involve purchasing large rolls of plastic film such as biaxially orientated polypropylene (BOPP) which is then printed to the customer's design and coated with cold seal adhesive for use on high speed packaging machines. This material is printed and coated in wide, large diameter rolls for maximum efficiency. The rolls are then slit, using a slitting machine, into smaller rolls of the size to be used on the packaging machine.

For harder materials, such as sheet metal, blades cannot be used for the slitting machine. Instead a modified form of shearing is used. Two cylindrical rolls with matching ribs and grooves are used to cut a large roll into multiple narrower rolls.