SHAPING GLASS SHEETS TO COMPLICATED SHAPES

摘要

Bending a glass sheet to a complicated shape that comprises one portion bent sharply relative to a main portion of the sheet involving the use of a vacuum holder, an auxiliary shaping rail and means to correlate the movement of the shaping rail with that of the glass sheet during a bending cycle to insure that the glass sheet is clear of the auxiliary shaping rail except for such time in the glass sheet bending cycle that requires the auxiliary shaping rail to engage the glass sheet portion to be sharply bent against the corresponding portion of the vacuum holder. Another feature incorporated in a preferred embodiment of the present invention facilitates ready removal of glass fragments whenever a flawed glass sheet fractures at or beyond a shaping station outside a furnace where the glass sheet is heated to its deformation temperature.