Glass toughening methods
AssigneeTriplex Safety Glass Company Limited
InventorRichard Melling
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A hot glass sheet, which may have been bent to a suitable shape for use in the manufacture of a vehicle window, is heated prior to quenching in a chilling medium such as a chilling liquid, in such a way that the edge of the sheet which first contacts the chilling medium is hotter than the trailing edge of the sheet.
Claims17
In a glass toughening method in which a glass sheet is advanced through a heating zone into a chilling medium to quench the sheet, the improvement comprising:
- prior to quenching, controllably heating the glass sheet in the heating zone to induce a substantially linear temperature gradient in the glass sheet from a higher temperature at the leading edge of the sheet which contacts the chilling medium first to a lower temperature at the trailing edge of the sheet;
- and
- quenching in the chilling medium the sheet having the substantially linear temperature gradient.
In a glass toughening method in which a glass sheet is advanced through a heating zone into a chilling medium to quench the sheet, the improvement comprising:
- prior to quenching, controllably heating the glass sheet in the heating zone to induce a substantially linear temperature gradient in the glass sheet from a higher temperature in the region of the leading edge of the sheet which contacts the chilling medium first to a lower temperature in the region of the trailing edge of the sheet;
- and
- quenching in the chilling medium the sheet having the substantially linear temperature gradient.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.