Glass sheet shaping and tempering using multiple cooling stations

摘要

The present invention relates to shaping and tempering glass sheets using a pair of cooling stations and an access area with a common tunnel-like furnace and a common shaping station. The cooling stations are located near the common glass sheet shaping station along angularly diverging paths of movement from said shaping station so that a first cooling station for chilling a glass sheet bent about an axis of curvature approximately parallel to its initial path of movement through the furnace is located along an extension of the path and a second cooling station for chilling a glass sheet bent about an axis substantially normal to the path of glass sheet movement through the furnace is located to one side of said shaping station and said access area is located to the other side of said shaping station. The access area permits ready change of shaping molds at the shaping station.