Station and system for press forming glass sheets

A glass sheet press forming system comprising:

• a conveyor for conveying glass sheets along a direction of conveyance;
• a furnace including a heating chamber through which the conveyor conveys glass sheets from an entrance end of the furnace toward an exit end thereof for heating in preparation for forming;
• the furnace adjacent its exit end including inclined rolls of progressively increasing inclination along the direction of conveyance so as to initially form each glass sheet with an upwardly concave curved shape extending transversely with respect to the direction of conveyance with upper end portions and a lower intermediate portion extending between the end portions, with the upper end portions and the lower intermediate portion having straight line elements, and with the glass sheet curved transversely to the straight line elements;
• a press station to which the conveyor conveys the initial formed glass sheet at a location downstream from the exit end of the furnace, the press station including a lower ring over which the glass sheet is conveyed, the lower ring including a support frame and also including a pair of rigid upwardly concave end portions on the support frame spaced laterally from each other relative to the direction of conveyance with rigid upwardly concave curved shapes along the direction of conveyance, the lower ring further including a pair of rigid upwardly concave intermediate portions on the support frame spaced from each other along the direction of conveyance with rigid upwardly concave curved shapes extending transversely to the direction of conveyance between the end portions of the lower ring, the end portions of the lower ring each including a connection that permits vertical movement thereof relative to the support frame, and the intermediate portions of the lower ring each including a connection that prevents movement thereof relative to the support frame so the end portions and the intermediate portions are movable vertically together with each other and independently of each other;
• the press station also including an upper mold located above the lower ring and having a downwardly facing surface with convex curvature both along and transverse to the direction of conveyance in complementary relationship to the curvature of the end portions and intermediate portions of the lower ring;
• and
• an actuator configured to:
• initially move the end portions and the intermediate portions of the lower ring upwardly together with each other by upward movement of the support frame to lift the initially formed glass sheet upwardly off of the conveyor;
• then move the end portions of the lower ring upwardly relative to the support frame and the intermediate portions of the lower ring to move the end portions of the glass sheet upwardly into contact with the downwardly facing surface of the upper mold to provide curvature to the straight line elements of the end portions of the glass sheet while the intermediate portion of the glass sheet is still below and has not yet been formed by the upper mold;
• and thereafter move the support frame upwardly to move the intermediate portions of the lower ring upwardly relative to its end portions to contact the intermediate portion of the glass sheet with the downwardly facing surface of the upper mold to provide curvature to the straight line elements of the intermediate portion of the glass sheet so the entire glass sheet has curvature in transverse directions.