Patent ID: 7162893

Claim:
A glass sheet bending station for cylindrically bending heated flat glass sheets, comprising: a framework; lower and upper deformable molds each of which includes a plurality of elongated mold members having opposite ends, and a plurality of roll assemblies supported by the mold members to receive a flat glass sheet to be bent; a pair of sets of lower and upper linkages that respectively support the lower and upper deformable molds on the framework and respectively extend between the opposite ends of the mold members to control movement thereof from a flat shape to a cylindrically bent shape; each linkage including connector links that are fixedly connected to associated ends of the mold members thereof and have pivotal connections to their adjacent connector links about axes that extend parallel to the glass sheet throughout the bending; each linkage also having control links that have respective pivotal connections to the connector links thereof about axes that extend perpendicular to the glass sheet throughout the bending, and universal connections that connect adjacent control links to each other; a primary actuating mechanism that is mounted by the framework and that moves the linkages such that the linkages move the mold members of the lower and upper deformable molds to bend the glass sheet with a constant radius; each linkage having at least one control link detachable connection that is detachable to permit glass sheet bending by linkage movement on one side thereof independently of linkage movement on the other side thereof; and a secondary actuating mechanism that is mounted by the framework and that moves the linkages on the one side of their detached connections of the control links to provide bending of the glass sheet independently of linkage movement on the other side of the detached connections.