Method of and apparatus for bending glass sheets

摘要

The glass sheet is heated to a heat-softened condition in a furnace, and conveyed to a prescribed position above an upper shaping surface of a ring mold. The sheet is then transferred onto the ring mold by lowering part of the conveyor means, and bent by a process involving raising both the ring mold and the conveyor means. This combination minimizes the introduction of optical distortion into the sheet. A preferred bending process is to press bend the sheet between the ring mold and an opposed upper bending mold.