摘要 |
Apparatus and equipment for making glass sheet from a glass ribbon including scoring, bending and separation in vertical state with improved glass ribbon stability provided by edge restrainers located above the score-line that also travel with substantially the same vertical velocity with the elastic ribbon. The edge restrainers on both sides of the glass ribbon serve to limit the motion and perturbation of the ribbon during scoring, bending and separation, advantageously by tensioning the glass ribbon where needed. The invention can reduce disturbance of the glass ribbon in upstream visco-elastic and/or viscous zones due to scoring, bending and separation, therefore enhance forming process stability and product attributes such as thickness variation, stress and stress variation, and the like. The invention can be particularly advantageous for making glass sheet with large width and/or low thickness using the fusion down-draw, slot down-draw, re-draw down-draw, and other down-draw processes.
|