Flachglas Aktiengesellschaft

Walter Brans

Dieter Funk

Dieter Bruns

Rolf Wenning

Joachim Pilz

Press-bending station for bending sheets of glass during the course of automated production of identical motor vehicle windows within specified batch sizes, where the glass sheets to be bent are heated in a continuous furnace to a specified bending temperature and directly after leaving the continuous furnace are fed in horizontal position with the aid of a horizontal conveyor into the press-bending station. It incorporates a male press mold and a female press mold. The male press mold is a cast full mold and consists of an aluminum alloy. The male press mold possesses heating passages for fluid heating with the aid of a liquid heat transfer medium and can be heated with sufficiently homogeneous temperature distribution to a thermal expansion temperature which is below the bending temperature. The temperature of the male press mold can be controlled and/or regulated by means of the liquid heat transfer medium. The thermal expansion temperature of the male press mold is controlled and/or regulated such that the specific thermal expansion of the male press mold and the thermal expansion of the glass sheet to be bent, placed centrally on the female press mold at bending temperature, practically correspond.

Glass bending press application

Process for operation of a press-bending station for bending glass sheets during the course of automated production of motor vehicle windows, during which manufacture the glass sheets to be bent are fed into a cyclically operating press-bending station, and after the bending operation are fed out of the press-bending station with the aid of a means of conveyance in the form of a shuttle ring into a cooling and/or toughening station. The press-bending station incorporates in its press an upper male press mold with vacuum-locating device for the bent glass sheet, a lower female press mold and the shuttle ring. The press incorporates a press upper beam which is movable up and down, to which a male press mold is attached. The bent glass sheet retained under the male press mold with the aid of the vacuum-locating device is fed to the shuttle ring by a downward movement. The downward motion is controlled or regulated according to a velocity curve which incorporates for commencement of downward motion an acceleration section, a maximum velocity curve section and a subsequent deceleration section for soft deposition of the bent glass sheet on the shuttle ring. The velocity curve is such that the first derivative of the velocity curve is free from singularities with respect to time. The reduced pressure of the vacuum-locating device is matched to the mass of the bent sheet. Deceleration of the downward motion of the press upper beam is matched to the reduced pressure of the vacuum-locating device.

Process for operating a glass-bending press

A transfer device for bent glass sheets during the course of automated production of motor vehicle glass windows on a production line with continuous furnace, bending press, toughening station and device for onward conveyance of the toughened glass sheets. The transfer device operates between the bending press and the toughening station. The transfer device is a shuttle transfer device whose shuttle is guided on shuttle guide rails. The shuttle guide rails are supported statically on the one hand on the press frame of the bending press and on the other hand on the station frame of the toughening station as beams on two supports or as continuous beams. The shuttle incorporates a shuttle frame as well as a shuttle ring mounted therein and the shuttle frame is guided on the shuttle guide rails by means of a shuttle frame mounting which movable on the shuttle guide rails. The shuttle ring is adjustable in relation to the shuttle frame mounting and thus in relation to the male bending mold. The shuttle ring incorporates on its edges positioning devices for the glass sheets received. At least the areas of the shuttle guide rails which project into the press frame of the bending press are removable for the purpose of carrying out maintenance and/or repair work on the bending press.

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Recklinghausen, Germany

Walter Brans