Arrangement of vacuum cups to assemble one or more bent glass sheets with a sheet of flexible interlayer material

摘要

This invention relates to an arrangement of vacuum cups in a bent glass sheet sandwich assembly apparatus and method of using said arrangement that provides a temporary bias to the central portion of a bent glass sheet to insure that a flexible sheet of interlayer material applied to the bent glass sheet initially engages its central portion and the area of engagement extends gradually to the edge of the sheets to avoid entrapment of air or other vapors in the interface of the resulting subassembly. When another bent glass sheet is applied to the opposite surface of the flexible sheet of interlayer material, the subassembly is temporarily biased once more to insure initial engagement in the central portion gradually extending to the edge of the sheets to avoid entrapment of air or other vapors in the interface of the subassembly with the second bent glass sheet.