Patent ID: 7430880

Claim:
A glass manufacturing system comprising: at least one vessel for melting batch materials and forming molten glass; an isopipe for receiving the molten glass and forming a glass sheet; and a fusion draw machine for receiving the glass sheet and drawing the glass sheet, wherein said fusion draw machine includes: a first roll assembly including: a first pulling roll support arm; a first motor; and a first roll; said first pulling roll support arm includes a frame supported by a horizontal restraint that is configured to transmit a horizontal load on said frame directly to an arm that is attached to one end of the frame, where a load cell is attached to the arm to measure the horizontal load which is caused by the glass sheet interfacing with said first roll that is rotatably attached to said frame and said first roll is also driven by said first motor; said frame further includes a pivot point where a spring is located and when a vertical load is present the first roll moves in a downward direction which changes a gap between said spring and a gap sensor, wherein the gap sensor measures a distance of the gap which is directly related to a distance the first roll moves in the downward direction and to the vertical load which is caused by the glass sheet interfacing with said first roll that is rotatably attached to said frame, and wherein the horizontal restraint is configured to transmit the horizontal load on the frame directly to the arm without effecting the vertical load on the spring; a second roll assembly including: a second pulling roll support arm, a second motor; and a second roll.