Patent ID: 8042359

Claim:
A method for heat treating a plurality of glass sheets comprising: (a) providing a container for housing the plurality of glass sheets during the heat treatment, said container comprising a support system for holding the glass sheets in a vertical orientation during the heat treatment, said support system comprising a bottom support, two side supports, and a top support; (b) inserting the plurality of glass sheets into the container by sliding the glass sheets into the side supports without contacting the side edges of the sheets with the side supports; (c) sliding the top support onto the tops of the plurality of glass sheets without contacting the top edges of the sheets with the top support after all the glass sheets have been loaded into the container, wherein the process of sliding the top support comprises: (i) placing an infeed assembly and top support guide tool with hinged brackets on top of the container; (ii) placing the top support on the infeed assembly and sliding the top support onto the hinged brackets on the top support guide tool; (iii) lowering the hinged brackets to install the top support, and removing the top support guide tool from the container; and (d) subjecting the glass sheets to the heat treatment; wherein: (i) the top support comprises shaped members which contact the inserted glass sheets only at locations inboard from the top edges of the sheets; and (ii) the side supports comprise shaped members which contact the inserted glass sheets only at locations inboard from the side edges of the sheets.