Abstract: A heat transfer method in a glass sheet bending furnace and a glass sheet bending furnace for carrying out the method are disclosed. The furnace includes a top array of successive heating sections and a bottom array of successive cooling sections, and glass sheets are placed on bending moulds supported by wagons and are advanced on conveyor tracks through the heating and cooling sections. Heat is transferred from bent, hot glass in a cooling section to unbent, cold glass in a heating section by air which is sucked from the cooling section and blasted into the heating section.

Abstract: A method and an apparatus in a glass sheet bending furnace are disclosed for preventing the deflection of a mould wagon bearing rail as the mould wagon is carried along a conveyor track made up of rollers on which the bearing rails rest, wherein the furnace includes a top array of successive heating sections and a bottom array of successive cooling sections. Deflection of the bearing rails is prevented by blasting cooling air to the top surfaces of the bearing rails in a cooling section of the furnace.

Abstract: A method of and a furnace assembly for bending glass sheets. Glass sheets (6) are conveyed in bending moulds (5) supported by cars (4) along an upper transport run (2) periodically from one heating section (10) to another. In the final heating section, temperature is risen so high that a glass sheet bends by the action of heat and gravity to conform with the surface of the mould. Thereafter, a car (4) together with a bent glass sheet is lowered onto a lower run (3) and returned to the outset of a furnace (1). On cooling, the glass sheets on said lower run emit heat to the glass sheets on said upper run through the open bottom structures of cars (4). The weight and heat capacity of the cars have been made as low as possible by removing the side and back walls thereof, whereby only the front or leading walls (8) provide locking walls between sections (10) successive in the longitudinal direction of the furnace.