Roll slitting is a shearing operation that cuts a large roll of material into narrower rolls. There are two types of slitting: log slitting and rewind slitting.

 In log slitting the roll of material is treated as a whole (the 'log') and one or more slices are taken from it without an unrolling/re-reeling process. In rewind slitting the web is unwound and run through the machine, passing through knives , before being rewound on one or more shafts to form narrower rolls. The multiple narrower strips of material may be known as mults (short for multiple) if their diameter is much more than their width .

For rewind slitting the machine used is called a slitter rewinder, a slitter or a slitting machine – these names are used interchangeably for the same machines.During a typical slitting process, the master roll is unwound, travels through a series of blades that “slits” the material, and is rewound around a core that is suitable for the next step in the production process.

The challenge for most manufacturers, especially those new to the industry, is finding a piece of equipment that will help speed up this slitting process and make their operation more efficient. There are thousands of different types of material and in most cases, one machine cannot slit them all. Under most circumstances, machines must be built to handle specific variations of the material in order to produce the best end result for the state of the material in question.