Both shafts had an overall length greater than 3.4m and an outside diameter of 360mm. Rimor’s unique continuous rubber type lugs with inbuilt rubber return springs were used to allow gripping of the multi knife blocks.

 This system does not utilise metal return springs, which could break and puncture the bladder. The 12 gripping lugs situated around the circumference of the shaft meant that the knife blocks could be positioned on the shaft securely and accurately. The expanding bladders for the grippers also utilised a small volume of air to allow quick inflation and deflation of the gripper. The shaft surface finish had to be accurately ground and chrome plated to allow the knives to be easily adjusted by means of a automatic knife positioning system supplied with the paper slitting machine. The parameters of the machine application also required that the static and dynamic balancing of the shaft and knives be carried out to the highest British Standard.