Asahi Glass Company, Limited

Takashi Hirotsu

Kazuyoshi Ohtani

Teruji Nagaoka

Tatsuo Sugiyama

Hiroshi Tsuji

Yukiyasu Mori

Kenji Maeda

Yoshihiro Watanabe

Isao Saito

Ryo Kanno

Toshimitsu Sato

Tomohiro Suwa

Junji Hori

Akio Imaichi

Ryou Kanno

The present invention relates to a method or an apparatus for bending a plate-like material such as a glass sheet for a side window having a double-curved surface for automobiles wherein the positioning of support frame and forming mold is performed with high precision. There are a forming step for placing a glass sheet on a forming support frame and pressing the glass sheet placed thereon against a forming surface of forming mold to bend the glass sheet and a conveyance step for transferring the formed glass sheet onto a conveyance support frame (the forming support frame can be used as a conveyance support frame) for conveying the glass sheet wherein the forming step includes a forming position correcting step for correcting a displacement of press position with respect to the forming support frame and a forming mold at the time of pressing the glass sheet against the forming mold, and the conveyance step includes a transfer position correcting step for correcting a displacement of transfer position of the glass sheet with respect to the forming mold and the conveyance support frame at the time of transferring the formed glass sheet onto the conveyance support frame.

Method for bending a glass sheet and apparatus for bending a glass sheet

There are the steps of conveying a glass plate by a roller conveyor including a plurality of rollers; and moving a roller in contact with the glass plate in conveyance to position the glass plate so as to conform a posture of the glass plate to a reference posture.

Method of positioning a glass plate using pivoting rollers

Method for positioning a glass plate on rollers

A method for manufacturing a curved sheet of glass which includes a heating furnace for heating a sheet of glass therein, the heating furnace having an outlet opening for discharging a curved sheet of glass, and an array of beds housed in the furnace for transferring a sheet of glass successively over the beds in the furnace in a first direction toward the outlet opening while shaping the sheet of glass complementarily to an upper surface of the beds, each of the beds having a plurality of hot air ejecting holes for ejecting hot air to keep the sheet of glass out of contact with the beds, the beds including a final bed disposed near the outlet opening and inclined upwardly toward the outlet opening, the final bed having an upper panel including at least a portion curved in the first direction near the outlet opening to curve the sheet of glass in the first direction.

Process for bend-shaping a glass plate and an apparatus for bend-shaping the glass plate

Process for bend-shaping a glass plate

A method and apparatus for manufacturing a curved sheet of glass which includes a heating furnace for heating a sheet of glass therein, the heating furnace having an outlet opening for discharging a curved sheet of glass, and an array of beds housed in the furnace for transferring a sheet of glass successively over the beds in the furnace in a first direction toward the outlet opening while shaping the sheet of glass complementarily to an upper surface of the beds, each of the beds having a plurality of hot air ejecting holes for ejecting hot air to keep the sheet of glass out of contact with the beds, the beds including a final bed disposed near the outlet opening and inclined upwardly toward the outlet opening, the final bed having an upper panel including at least a portion curved in the first direction near the outlet opening to curve the sheet of glass in the first direction.

Apparatus for Bend-shaping a glass plate

A process for bend-shaping a glass plate by heating the glass plate to a softening temperature of the glass plate, while the glass plate is transferred along a transferring surface in a shaping furnace. The glass plate is transferred along a complex bending transferring surface having a complex curved face which is upwardly projected with predetermined radius of curvatures along both the axis of the transferring direction and the axis perpendicular to the transferring direction. The transferring surface having an upward gradient portion at at least an area near the exit of the shaping furnace, to thereby bend the glass plate into a shape which substantially corresponds to that of the complex bending transferring surface, and then, the glass plate being cooled and strengthened along a cooling transferring surface which has a complex curved face so as to be substantially continuous to that of the complex bending transferring surface and which has at least a downward gradient portion in at least a part of the cooling transferring surface.

Process for bend-shaping a glass plate and an apparatus for bend-shaping

Glass plates for a laminated glass are bent and strengthened by provisionally shaping by heating two overlapping glass plates placed on a deadweight bending mold having a shaping surface by elevating the temperature to a temperature capable of bending glass and by locally heating side portions of the two overlapping glass plates to be deeply bent at a higher temperature in a heating/pressing stage so that the two overlapping glass plates are provisionally shaped by their own deadweight into a shape substantially corresponding to the shape of the shaping surface of the bending mold, pressing a portion of the two overlapping glass plates to be deeply bent from the top by a pressing member after the provisional shaping step in a heating/pressing stage, separating the two overlapping glass plates from the bending mold by pushing up the portion of the glass plates other than the deeply bent peripheral portion of the two overlapping glass plates thereby cooling the peripheral portion of the glass plates in a peripheral portion strengthening stage, and cooling the overlapping glass plates to atmospheric temperature.

Method and apparatus for bending overlapping glass plates to form a

Two glass plates on a bending mold are heated in a heating/bending furnace so that they are subjected to provisionally deep-bending operations by their own deadweight, and the provisionally shaped deep-bent portion is pressed by an auxiliary pressing member to thereby form a laminated glass for, for instance, an automobile.

Method of and an apparatus for bending glass plates for a laminated

Two glass plates on a bending mold are heated in a heating/bending furnace so that they are subjected to provisional deep-bending operations by their own deadweight, and the provisionally shaped deep-bent portion is pressed by an auxiliary pressing member to thereby form a laminated glass for, for instance, an automobile.

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Yokohama, Japan

Takashi Hirotsu