Apparatus for bending a glass sheet

Abstract

A glass sheet is heated to a forming temperature in a heating furnace, the heated glass sheet is conveyed along a conveying plane defined by a plurality of rollers of a roller conveyer, and is moved up and down on the rollers according to the position of the glass sheet to curve a part of the conveying plane with respect to the glass sheet conveying direction to bend the glass sheet to have a desired curvature by its own weight. The rollers are curved rollers.

1 . An apparatus for bending a glass sheet, comprising
 a heating furnace to heat a glass sheet to a bending temperature, and a roller conveyer having a plurality of rollers to convey the heated glass sheet along a conveying plane defined by the rollers, said rollers being movable up and down according to the position of the glass sheet, to have a part of said conveying plane sheet bent with respect to the conveying direction of the glass sheet thereby to let the glass sheet bend by the weight thereof to have a desired curvature wherein said rollers are curved rollers, each of said curved rollers having a flexible shaft capable of being bent,   a plurality of ring rollers are provided which are rotatable about the flexible shaft as the rotation axis,   a plurality of ring rollers; and   a curving rod for supporting the flexible shaft and for curving said conveying plane defined by a plurality of said ring rollers, by flexing the curving rod and thereby flexing the flexible shaft to have a desired curvature along the curving rod.   
   
   
       2 . The apparatus for bending a glass sheet according to  claim 1 , wherein said curving rod has a variable curvature rod having a first link structure for realizing a desired mono-curvilineal shape, and a second link structure provided beside the first link structure for realizing a desired mono-curvilineal shape; said first and second link structures comprising a plurality of link members linked via gear portions so as to be swingable, each of said link members having two pivot pins located at a constant pitch, and wherein the link members comprise said first link structure, and the link members comprising said second link structure share said pivot pins with a half pitch shifted from each other. 
   
   
       3 . The apparatus for bending a glass sheet according to  claim 1 , wherein said plurality of ring rollers are connected one another by a plurality of flexible tubular members. 
   
   
       4 . The apparatus for bending a glass sheet according to  claim 1 , wherein said curved rollers are arranged in a cooling zone.