Patent ID: 6843074
Filing Date: 2005-01-18
Classification: C03B

Abstract:
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 curved rollers to convey the heated glass sheet along a conveying plane defined by the curved rollers, said curved rollers being movable up and down according to the position of the glass sheet, to have a part of said conveying plane bent with respect to the conveying direction of the glass sheet thereby to let the glass sheet bend by its own weight to have a desired curvature, wherein each of said curved rollers has a variable curvature rod having a first link structure to realize a desired mono-curvilineal shape, and a second link structure provided beside the first link structure to realize a desired mono-curvilineal shape, and ring rollers rotatable about said variable curvature rod as the rotation axis; said first and second link structures are each constituted by a plurality of link members linked via gear portions so as to be swingable, each of said link members has two pivot pins located at a constant pitch, and the link members constituting said first link structure, and the link members constituting said second link structure share said pivot pins with half pitch shifted from each other.