Patent ID: 8028543

Claim:
An apparatus for tempering a bent glass sheet, comprising means for conveying the bent glass sheet along a predetermined path through the apparatus, and a pair of blastheads for quenching the bent glass sheet with jets of quench gas, the blastheads comprising upper and lower blastheads arranged in opposed relationship above and below the predetermined path, each blasthead comprising a plurality of spaced elongate plenums for supplying quench gas to an array of quench nozzles from which the jets of quench gas issue, each plenum possessing a longitudinal centerline extending along a longitudinal extent of the plenum, each nozzle possessing an axis, each plenum bearing one or two rows of quench nozzles, successive such rows constituting the array of quench nozzles, the length of the quench nozzles exceeding their diameter, and the quench nozzles of each plenum being inclined so that the axes of some of the nozzles of each plenum are inclined to one side of the plenum relative to a vertical plane containing the longitudinal centerline of the plenum and the axes of others of the nozzles in each plenum are inclined towards an opposite side of the plenum relative to the vertical plane containing the longitudinal centerline of the plenum to provide diverging jets of quench gas, wherein each of the plenums extends transversely to the direction of conveyance of the bent glass sheet, thereby affording side access between adjacent pairs of plenums, and each array of quench nozzles is curved in at least one direction, the apparatus possessing a centerline parallel to the direction of conveyance, and successive plenums of the lower blasthead are connected to each other by connecting surfaces which are positioned between and connected to the successive plenums, the connecting surfaces being inclined downwards away from the centerline.