Abstract: This invention relates to tempering curved, hot glass sheets supported with their concavely shaped major surfaces facing a first set of pipe-type nozzles and their convexly shaped major surfaces facing a second set of bar-type nozzle housings while tempering medium is applied simultaneously under pressure against said major surfaces.

Abstract: This invention relates to improvements in handling glass sheets during shaping. Each glass sheet in turn is heated to its deformation temperature and conveyed into a glass shaping station. The glass is lifted into engagement with an upper vacuum shaping mold while hot and held against the vacuum shaping mold by vacuum as the glass lifting mechanism retracts downward. A transfer and tempering ring-like member having an outline supporting surface conforming to and slightly inside the periphery of the bent glass sheet is brought into a position below the upper vacuum shaping mold. The vacuum on the upper mold is released to deposit the shaped glass sheet on the ring-like member. In case the outline of the glass sheet is irregular, the shaped glass may become tilted as it falls toward the ring-like member and be deposited in a misaligned position relative to said ring-like member.

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 need not be removed or replaced until such time as production requirements call for bent windows having a different radius of curvature.A specific embodiment of this invention is provided with a series of transversely extending grooves that extend completely across the entire width 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 spaced conveyor rolls. The grooves have a maximum width of one inch (25.4 millimeters) and are separated by a minimum distance approximating the width of said grooves.

Abstract: This invention relates to improvements in handling glass sheets during shaping and cooling. Each glass sheet in turn is heated to its deformation temperature and conveyed into a glass shaping station. The glass is lifted into engagement with an upper vacuum shaping mold while hot and held against the vacuum shaping mold by vacuum as the glass lifting mechanism retracts downward. A transfer and tempering ring-like member having stop means upstream of an outline supporting surface conforming to and slightly inside the periphery of the bent glass sheet is brought into a position where its stop means are slightly misaligned upstream of the trailing edge of the glass sheet. The vacuum on the upper mold is released to deposit the shaped glass sheet on the ring-like member.

Abstract: This invention relates to apparatus for handling glass sheets during shaping and cooling, and in particular to a ring-like member having stop means spaced upstream of an outline supporting surface conforming to and slightly inside the periphery of a bent glass sheet supported thereon to define a position for engaging the trailing edge of the glass sheet while conveying the latter in a downstream direction from a shaping station to a cooling station. The ring-like member has a pair of downstream end portions that are transversely spaced from one another to provide a clearance space to permit the ring-like member to begin to return in an upstream direction to the shaping station before the shaped glass sheet is transferred to a position completely downstream of the ring-like member.

Abstract: This invention relates to method and apparatus for handling glass sheets during shaping and cooling. Each glass sheet to be treated in turn is heated to its deformation temperature and conveyed through a furnace and into a glass shaping station by a roller conveyor. The glass is lifted into engagement with a vacuum shaping mold while hot and held against the vacuum shaping mold by vacuum as the glass lifting mechanism retracts downward. A tempering ring having an outline supporting surface conforming to and slightly inside the periphery of the bent glass sheet is brought into position below the upper vacuum mold. The vacuum on the upper mold is released to deposit the shaped glass sheet on the tempering ring.

Abstract: The present invention relates to a method of reducing the severity of edge kinking that sometimes occurs when heated glass sheets are shaped by roll forming. The improvement comprises superficially cooling one or both side edge portions of each glass sheet between a furnace exit and a roll forming station where its undersurface is lifted by a set of lower rotating forming rolls having a concave configuration in their axial direction which is transverse to the direction of glass sheet movement.

Abstract: Apparatus for aligning and orienting moving glass sheets immediately prior to their treatment. This invention is especially suitable for use with glass sheets heated while conveyed through a furnace on a roller conveyor where the glass becomes misaligned or misoriented prior to entry into a shaping station. However, the invention is also capable of use with any type of conveyor defining an enclosed conveyor path for said glass sheets where the glass is liable to lose its orientation and/or alignment and must be oriented and/or aligned preparatory to processing and is also suitable to orient and align rigid sheets other than glass.The apparatus includes a pair of truncated conical rollers which engage the edge of the glass sheet and, due to their shape, substantially reduce chipping thereof. These rollers are mounted on a carriage in a manner to permit lateral movement relative to the carriage by cams. The carriage reciprocates along the path in a manner to move with the sheets.

Abstract: Method and apparatus for controlling deviations from desired shape of a glass sheet shaped by roll forming, wherein a critical portion of the shaped glass sheet is either lifted or twisted momentarily during or immediately following the roll forming operation.

Abstract: A system for conveying a series of glass sheets at a non-uniform speed through sheet treatment apparatus comprising a plurality of treatment stations. Longitudinally spaced conveyor rolls are rotated at a first speed at a first sheet treatment station where each sheet in turn is oriented and aligned properly relative to said conveying system and other rolls are rotated at a greater speed at a second sheet treatment station where the properly oriented and aligned sheet is treated.

Abstract: In the roll forming method of shaping glass sheets, glass defects are reduced by employing a mild stream of cooling gas in the vicinity of the lower forming rolls and/or the underside of the glass sheet.During continuing mass production runs at high rates of production extending over long periods, the heated glass sheets heat the surfaces of the lower rotating forming rolls to a significantly higher temperature than that of the upper rotating forming rolls. The present invention reduces the detrimental effects that have been determined by the present invention to be due to this temperature differential between the surface temperature of the upper forming rolls and that of the lower forming rolls.

Abstract: Apparatus for conveying hot glass sheets in a non-vertical orientation through a glass cooling station on spaced rolls capable of rapid and exact adjustment from roll to roll to support and convey either flat glass sheets or sheets shaped to different shapes.

Abstract: In forming heat-softened sheets by the roll forming method, continuously moving sheets of heat-softenable material, such as glass sheets, are conveyed continuously along a conveyor into a roll forming station, where a pair of sets of rotating shaping rolls move relatively toward one another to provide rolling engagement against the opposite surfaces of each moving glass sheet in succession in spaced relation to the conveyor for sufficient time to shape the sheets. The sets of rotating shaping rolls then move relatively away from one another to redeposit the shaped sheet onto the conveyor. The sheets are flat entering the roll forming station and shaped to a curved configuration on leaving the roll forming station. The present invention relates to a system of conveyor rolls capable of supporting heat-softened sheets that enter the roll forming apparatus in a flat condition and that leave the roll forming apparatus in shaped condition after they have been shaped by roll forming.