Nippon Sheet Glass Company, Limited

Takeshi Yabuno

Seiichiro Honjo

Yasuyuki Nagai

Hideo Yoshizawa

Toru Futagami

Kazushi Shinozaki

Mamoru Takimura

An apparatus for bend-shaping a glass sheet is disclosed, which comprises a heating furnace, a plurality of in-furnace beds disposed within the heating furnace, at least one out-furnace bed disposed externally of the heating furnace proximately to an outlet of the heating furnace, and an elevating mechanism disposed below that one of the in-furnace beds which is positioned proximately to the outlet and the out-furnace bed. The in- and out-furnace beds have upper surfaces curved transversely and capable of jetting air to floatingly support a glass sheet. For producing a dual curved glass sheet, the elevating mechanism is operated to elevate opposed ends of the one in-furnace bed and the out-furnace bed so that these beds jointly form a hill. For producing a single-curved glass sheet, the elevating mechanism is operated to lower the opposed ends of those beds to their original flat positions.

Apparatus and method for bend-shaping a glass sheet

Method for bend-shaping a glass sheet

In a quenching apparatus for quenching a glass sheet that has been heated and bent in a heating furnace, a cooling gas blows onto the glass sheet to provide a distribution of a temperature and/or a distribution of a static pressure in at least one section in the quenching apparatus. The distribution of a temperature provides different temperatures between the both surfaces of the glass sheet, while the distribution of a static pressure is nonuniform in a part of at least one surface of the glass sheet. The distributions can modify a shape of the glass sheet given in the heating furnace so that a degree of freedom in shape for manufacturing a bent and tempered glass sheet by utilizing its self-weight can be improved.

Method for manufacturing bent and tempered glass sheet and apparatus for

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Osaka, Japan

Takeshi Yabuno