Abstract: A horizontal press bending arrangement wherein heat softened glass sheets are engaged by a shuttling vacuum pickup. The pickup and sheet are transferred out of the furnace and into a shaping station wherein the glass sheet is deposited and repositioned between a pair of vertically aligned full surface press faces.

Abstract: A pair of heat softened overlaying glass sheets are held by vacuum against an apertured engaging surface of a vacuum holder. The overlaying glass sheets can be shaped before, during, or after being held by the vacuum holder.

Abstract: A bit for a core drill of the type for drilling a chamfered hole in an article has a dynamic cooling fluid flow directing element for cooling the bit and article surfaces during drilling and chamfering of the article.

Abstract: A stop assembly for positioning glass sheets that are pressed between upper and lower shaping molds. The stop member is pivoted into a sheet engaging position as the sheet is heated and conveyed onto a gas hearth. As a lifting ring which surrounds the gas hearth moves vertically, lifting the sheet off the gas hearth and towards the upper mold face, the stop assembly rotates to a position outside the pressing surface of the upper and lower molds.

Abstract: A tempering ring for supporting a hot shaped glass sheet during tempering has inner and outer rings conforming in shape and outline to that of the hot glass sheet. Individual glass sheet support members with pivoting head members are mounted around the perimeter of the tempering ring. The head members pivot to conform to the peripheral contours of the hot shaped glass sheet. The glass sheet support members are each adjusted in both a longitudinal and vertical direction.

Abstract: A tempering ring for supporting a hot shaped glass sheet during tempering has inner and outer rings conforming in shape and outline to that of the hot glass sheet. Individual glass sheet support members are mounted around the perimeter of the tempering ring so that the glass sheet support surfaces of the support members define a peripheral contour similar to that of the hot shaped glass sheet. The glass sheet support members are each adjusted in both a longitudinal and vertical direction.

Abstract: The present invention includes an insert securably mountable within the chamber of a core drill, such as a chamfering diamond core drill used for drilling and chamfering glass articles. The insert preferably includes a first diverting facility for diverting a first portion of a lubricating/cooling fluid from within the core drill to the inner drilling surfaces of the core drill, and a second diverting facility for diverting a second portion of the lubricating/cooling fluid to the outer drilling surface and chamfering surface of the core drill, to prevent thermal damage to the article being drilled and chamfered, during both the drilling and chamfering steps. The present invention further includes a method of lubricating/cooling an article during drilling and chamfering operations with lubricating/cooling fluid from within the core drill, to prevent thermal damage to the article being drilled.

Abstract: In apparatus for shaping sheets of heat-softenable material, such as glass and plastics, an upper vacuum mold is provided with an apertured wall member of low expansion refractory material to engage a heat-softened sheet during a portion of its shaping. In order to improve its durability, metal clamping devices that cause high local stresses in the refractory wall member are not used to secure the refractory wall member to metal structural elements of the vacuum mold. The present invention comprises novel mold structure to support a lower apertured wall member of refractory material on an inverted metal box member without metal attachment devices that induce high local stresses.

Abstract: Sheets of heat-deformable material, such as glass, are shaped to non-uniform curvatures that include a localized sharply bent portion near one side portion of the sheet by lifting the sheet while the latter is at a deformation temperature range on a lower lifting mold of special construction that includes spaced, transversely extending slats having upper edge surfaces defining the non-uniform bend and a longitudinally extending end slat whose upper edge surface defines a transverse curve that merges with the upper edge surfaces of said transversely extending slats.

Abstract: Bending a glass sheet to a complicated shape that comprises one portion bent sharply relative to a main portion of the sheet involving the use of a vacuum holder, an auxiliary shaping rail and means to correlate the movement of the shaping rail with that of the glass sheet during a bending cycle to insure that the glass sheet is clear of the auxiliary shaping rail except for such time in the glass sheet bending cycle that requires the auxiliary shaping rail to engage the glass sheet portion to be sharply bent against the corresponding portion of the vacuum holder. Another feature incorporated in a preferred embodiment of the present invention facilitates ready removal of glass fragments whenever a flawed glass sheet fractures at or beyond a shaping station outside a furnace where the glass sheet is heated to its deformation temperature.

Abstract: A glass sheet is press bent between a pair of bending molds of complementary shape provided with covers using burning gas source means that supplies heat by directing burning gas flames toward the bottom edge of a glass sheet. The burning gas source means is constructed and arranged to be directed toward the path taken by the glass sheet when the latter moves into a shaping position with the press bending molds retracted and to pivot away from the mold covers when the press bending molds engage the glass sheet including its bottom edge during the shaping of the sheet. Preferably, the burning gas source means has a shape that conforms with the shape of the bottom edge of the glass sheet undergoing press bending and has an upwardly directed downstream portion to provide clearance as the glass sheet moves into said shaping position in a direction such that a recessed lower edge portion thereof is the leading edge of the glass sheet during its path of movement into the shaping station.

Abstract: Multiple chamber vacuum holders for use in shaping sheets of glass or other heat-softenable material to complex shapes require a different level of vacuum in adjacent vacuum chambers. A porous fiber glass cover used with such vacuum holders provide passages for residual air in adjacent passages to tend to equalize when a sheet is held against the porous cover. The present invention helps maintain a difference in level of vacuum between adjacent vacuum chambers by interposing a narrow space vented to atmosphere between adjacent vacuum chambers of the multiple chamber vacuum holder.

Abstract: A deformable vacuum mold for shaping glass sheets to complicated shapes includes mold stiffening structure engaging the central portion of the mold, mold lifting means engaging the longitudinal end portions of the vacuum mold to lift the latter relative to the mold stiffening structure and optional bar means adjustable in position and orientation to provide local control imparted to the shape of the vacuum mold when the longitudinal end portions of the mold are lifted. The deformable vacuum mold may also include a pair of lifting means providing different amounts of lift to the longitudinal end portions on opposite sides of the longitudinal center line of the mold and approximately equal amounts of lift to the longitudinal end portions on opposite sides of the transverse center line of the mold.

Abstract: The present invention relates to shaping and tempering glass sheets using a pair of cooling stations and an access area with a common tunnel-like furnace and a common shaping station. The cooling stations are located near the common glass sheet shaping station along angularly diverging paths of movement from said shaping station so that a first cooling station for chilling a glass sheet bent about an axis of curvature approximately parallel to its initial path of movement through the furnace is located along an extension of the path and a second cooling station for chilling a glass sheet bent about an axis substantially normal to the path of glass sheet movement through the furnace is located to one side of said shaping station and said access area is located to the other side of said shaping station. The access area permits ready change of shaping molds at the shaping station.

Abstract: This invention concerns shaping sheets of glass or other deformable material to compound shapes. A sheet having a desired transverse component of curvature engages the downward facing surface of a deformable vacuum mold having a lower transversely curved wall and is held thereagainst by vacuum while still hot enough to be distorted as the vacuum mold deforms to apply the longitudinal bending component to the sheet to be shaped.

Abstract: In the bending and tempering of glass sheets supported on a ring-like member for conveyance of the bent glass sheet through a cooling station, a transfer device for unloading the bent, tempered glass sheet is provided. The transfer device is so constructed and arranged that it does not cause a bottleneck in high speed, mass production of bent, tempered glass sheets, avoids uncontrolled departures from the desired shape of the bent, tempered glass sheets, particularly those that develop in the marginal edge portion of the glass sheets that must fit exactly into glass sheet receiving frames of installation structures or vehicles, and enables the glass sheet to transfer so gently as to inhibit the likelihood of breakage resulting from uncontrolled dropping of bent, tempered glass sheets during their handling.

Abstract: In press bending glass sheets delivered while heat-softened into a shaping station between an upper vacuum mold and a lower lifting mold wherein the glass sheet is first lifted on said lifting mold, transferred by suction to said vacuum mold, lifted while engaged by said vacuum mold to provide clearance for entry of a ring-like member to a position below said vacuum mold, stopping the suction in said vacuum mold to drop said glass sheet onto said ring-like member and removing said glass sheet from said shaping station while supported on said ring-like member, the rate of production is increased by lowering said vacuum mold into a parking position closely adjacent to the uppermost position permitted for said lifting mold to provide clearance for delivering a succeeding glass sheet to said shaping station and reducing the vertical distance needed to lift the glass sheet to a position where it can be transferred by suction to the vacuum mold once the ring-like member clears said shaping station.

Abstract: This invention relates to shaping glass sheets and particularly to a mold capable of shaping glass sheets having many different outline shapes but bent to the same radius of curvature. Such molds have dimensions larger than those of a family of windows of a given radius of curvature but different outline shapes. Such molds comprise a solid block of refractory material comprising a plurality of smooth, curved, upwardly facing, elongated shaping members extending continuously across an entire dimension of said mold and separated by transversely extending grooves that extend completely across the entire dimension of the shaping mold and have sufficient width and depth to permit clearance for raising the mold above a horizontal path of glass sheet travel defined by glass conveying elements.

Abstract: Shaping glass sheets by lifting a heat-softened glass sheet on a lower mold having an upwardly facing surface defining a given sharpness of bend and transferring said glass sheet by suction to an upper vacuum mold having a downwardly facing shaping surface defining a lesser sharpness of bend. Optionally, a ring-like member defining a sharpness of bend that may be equal to, less severe, or more severe than that defined by the upper vacuum mold moves between the molds when the latter are separated to impose a shape in the glass sheet that is correlated with the shape defined by the ring-like member. The ring-like member is used to support the glass sheet for rapid cooling if the glass sheet is to be tempered. Only the ring-like member need be changed when a change in production pattern is made.

Abstract: Producing glass sheets having improved break patterns over those produced either by typical heat strengthening procedures or by heating to a tempering temperature followed by natural cooling.