Saint-Gobain Vitrage International

Thierry Franco

Jean-Luc Lesage

Jean-Marc Petitcollin

Arnaud Borderiou

An apparatus for bending/tempering glass sheets raised to their softening point with a view to their bending and tempering includes an upper plate mold and a lower annular mold on which the glass sheets are deformed, and with respect to which the edge of glass sheets move as a result of their deformation, particularly by horizontal pressing between the upper bending mold and the lower mold. The bent sheets are thermally tempered in air on the same annular mold in a tempering station. This annular mold is designed in such a way that its contact surface with the glass sheets at the start of their deformation on the mold, being located on the outer periphery of the mold, is appropriate for the mark-free displacement of the glass on the mold and in particular for pressing, and so that at the end of displacement, and in particular at the end of pressing, the contact surface located on the inner periphery of said mold is appropriate for tempering.

Apparatus including mold having covering for annular bending/tempering

A device for bending glass sheets which includes a furnace for heating the glass, a conveyor, a bending station within which there is suspended, notably from a plate, an upper bending mold at least partly disposed inside the skirt of a peripheral suction box, and the lower face of which is covered with a covering in such a way that this covering is supported by an attachment device which can be removed and is not integral with the upper mold.

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Compiegne, France

Thierry Franco