Patent ID: 8916017

Claim:
A contoured glass sheet laminating system comprising a glass-side vacuum bed, a laminate-side vacuum bed and a lamination actuator wherein: the glass-side vacuum bed comprises a vacuum backside and a mold-receiving side and has sufficient permeability to permit a vacuum system to pull a vacuum across a thickness of the glass-side vacuum bed between the vacuum backside and the mold-receiving side of the glass-side vacuum bed; the laminate-side vacuum bed comprises a vacuum backside and a thin-film loading side and has sufficient permeability to permit a vacuum system to pull a vacuum across a thickness of the laminate-side vacuum bed between the vacuum backside of the laminate-side vacuum bed and the thin-film loading side of the laminate-side vacuum bed; the lamination actuator is positioned to operatively engage the vacuum backside of the laminate-side vacuum bed and is operative to move laterally and vertically relative to the glass-side vacuum bed and the laminate-side vacuum bed; the laminate-side vacuum bed is sufficiently flexible to at least partially conform to the shape of a contoured glass sheet held by a glass-side contoured mold in contact with the mold-receiving side of the glass-side vacuum bed when loaded with a thin-film lamination package and operatively engaged by the lamination actuator; and the lamination actuator is further operative to complement an at least partial release of the vacuum pulled across the laminate-side vacuum bed as the lamination actuator moves laterally relative to the laminate-side vacuum bed, wherein the glass-side vacuum bed is under lateral tension.