Patent ID: 8549881

Claim:
A method for preventing gas from occupying a spray nozzle used in quenching a sheet of hot glass during a scoring process, comprising: removing gas from a quenching liquid to prevent said gas from occupying a spray nozzle; spraying a jet of said quenching liquid through a tip orifice of the spray nozzle onto a sheet of hot glass during a scoring process without interruption in said jet to rapidly cool the glass surface and thereby generate a thermal tensile stress sufficient to generate a crack in the glass surface; propagating said crack across the glass surface by rapid cooling of the glass surface; and shutting off said jet of said quenching liquid without a substantial time delay once said scoring process is complete; and providing a gas removal device, wherein the gas removal device comprises a purge opening at an upper location of said spray nozzle in fluid communication with a nozzle passageway of the spray nozzle; a purge line leading from said purge opening to a discharge location remote from said nozzle purging gas in said nozzle, a primary valve disposed in a main liquid supply line leading from a pressurized quenching liquid source, and a secondary valve disposed between said spray nozzle and said discharge location; said method further comprising removing said gas by opening said secondary valve and directing said liquid through said purge opening and along said purge line to said discharge location.