Glass transporation system

Abstract

A pressure pad array is used to float glass sheets from a glass heating furnace to a ring mold in a press bending station. The pressure pads have transversely spaced, longitudinally-extending slotted nozzles angled towards one another to provide a static pressure area for floating the glass sheet. The slotted nozzles are aligned with the direction of glass sheet travel and the space between adjacent pressure pads is covered by a spacer baffle to generate additional static pressure flotation areas. The static pressure areas formed by the slotted nozzles generally produce uniform pressure profiles extending longitudinally and transversely against the sheet's underside to stably float the glass sheets on a heated gas cushion.

What is claimed:  
     
         1 . A method for transporting a discrete glass sheet traveling in a given direction comprising the steps of: 
 a) providing underneath said sheet a plurality of longitudinally extending pressure pads having generally parallel, longitudinal slot nozzles transversely spaced from one another by a baffle plate with longitudinally opposed slot nozzles oriented at an angle to a longitudinally extending centerline;    b) directing a gas stream through said slot nozzles under pressure to create opposing gas streams exiting said longitudinal slot nozzles, said gas streams impinging one another to create a static gas pressure area between said nozzles, said baffle plate and the underside of said glass sheet, whereby said static pressure area stably supports said sheet; and,    c) moving said sheet in the given direction.    
     
     
         2 . A glass processing line having a plurality of stations, the glass processing line comprising: 
 a) a glass transport station for conveying heated, discrete glass sheets via a plurality of generally longitudinally extending pressure pads;    b) a glass shaping station which receives the heated, discrete glass sheet from the glass transport station via the plurality of pressure pads, and wherein the sheet is shaped into a predetermined configuration.