Abstract: In bending a glass sheet, the load applied to an intermediate glass sheet can be equalized to improve the quality of a final glass sheet. For this purpose, a forming ring 1 comprises a first forming frame 15 and a second forming frame 16, and the swingable center of each of swingable frames 19, 20, which forms right and left portions of a second forming frame 16, is located at an intermediate position apart from a separation position from each of fixed frames 17, 18. By such arrangement, the intermediate glass sheet can be equally supported when the swingable frames 19, 20 are moved along the intermediate glass sheet and the intermediate glass sheet is transferred from the first forming frame 15 onto the second forming frame 16.

Abstract: An apparatus for forming glass sheets is provided wherein in a furnace structure of a heating furnace where molds with glass sheets carried thereon are intermittently conveyed, the staying period in the heating zone just before an annealing zone is variable, and the annealing zone includes a lifting device to separate a mold from a conveying device. By such arrangement, glass sheets having different shapes can be successively produced with a period for job change being greatly shortened.