| 摘要 |
A glass sheet tempering method and system (10) disclosed utilizes a heating chamber (22) and a quenching chamber (26) which contain ambients at superatmospheric pressure during both the heating and quenching. Forced convection heating is preferably performed in an improved furnace (14''). In one embodiment, heated gas flow is provided by centrifugal blowers which blow air across a plurality of spaced heat tubes. The heated gas flow is directed toward a glass sheet positioned within the heating chamber to provide rapid heating of the glass sheet. In a second embodiment, the heated gas flow is provided by upper and lower sets of opposed gas jet pumps connected to a gas supply. A pressure gas supply including a compressor maintains the superatmospheric pressure of the heating and quenching chambers (22,26). A recirculating gas supply (32) feeds compressed quenching gas to opposed blastheads (28,30) to perform the tempering. An entrance station (12) is also provided for introducing glass sheets into the furnace heating chamber (22), and an exit station (18) is provided for receiving the tempered glass sheets from the quenching chamber (26). Conveyors (34,44) of the furnace and quench units provide conveyance of the glass sheet during the heating and quenching.
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