Patent ID: 7234620

Claim:
A method for separating a pane of a brittle material from a moving sheet of the material along a separation line, said pane and said sheet having a width, said pane when separated having a length, said movement of the sheet being described by a vector, said method comprising: (a) releasably engaging the moving sheet within an area defined by the length and width of the to-be-separated pane, said area becoming the pane when separated from the sheet; (b) rotating the to-be-separated pane about an axis which substantially coincides with the separation line, said rotation causing the pane to separate from the sheet; and (c) moving the separated pane relative to the moving sheet using gravity as the sole motive force so that the pane and the sheet do not contact each other once separation occurs; wherein the sheet moves continuously during (a), (b), and (c).