Shaping sheets of heat-softenable material

Apparatus for shaping a heat-softened sheet to a complicated curvatures comprising:

• a carriage,
• a pair of clamps for clamping each of the opposite side edges of said sheet,
• first cable means suspending one of said pairs of clamps and another cable means suspending the other of said pairs of clamps,
• means to support said cable means at one of their ends to said carriage,
• a sheet shaping member having a configuration conforming to that desired at one of said opposite end portions of said sheet,
• a sheet shaping member having a configuration conforming to that desired at the other of said opposite end portions of said sheet, and
• means to clamp said shaping members to said sheet in such a manner that said shaping members rest in fixed relation to the upper surface of said sheet,
• whereby when said sheet is heated to its deformation temperature, said shaping members follow said heated sheet in response to said sheet sagging as it softens and said cable means apply force through said clamps to said sheet to wrap said end portions about said shaping members associated with the respective end portions of said sheet to conform said clamped end portions to said shaping members.

Apparatus for shaping heat-softened sheets to complicated curvatures comprising:

• a carriage,
• a pair of clamps for clamping each of the opposite side edges of said sheet,
• cable means comprising a cable or a cable portion for each corner portio of an end portion of said sheet to be shaped, said cable means being suspended from an overhead point on said carriage and connected to one or another of said corner portions of said sheet,
• a shaping member having a configuration conforming to that desired at one of the opposite end portions of said sheet,
• a shaping member having a configuration conforming to that desired at the other of the opposite end portions of said sheet, and
• means to clamp said shaping members to said end portions of said sheet in such a manner that said shaping member rests in fixed relation to the upper surface of said sheet,
• whereby when said sheet is heated to its deformation temperature, said shaping members follow said heated sheet in response to said sheet sagging as it softens and said cable means apply force to said sheet to wrap said end portions about said shaping members associated with said end portions to conform said clamped end portions to said shaping members.

Apparatus for shaping a heat-softened sheet to a complicated curvatures comprising:

• a carriage,
• a pair of clamps for clamping each of the opposite side edges of said sheet,
• a pulley rotatably supported to each end of each of said clamps to provide a pair of spaced pulleys associated with each of the opposite ends of said sheet,
• a first cable entrained about said pair of spaced pulleys associated with one of said opposite ends of said sheet,
• a second cable entrained about said other pair of spaced pulleys associated with other of said opposite ends of said sheet,
• a sheet shaping member having a configuration conforming to that desired at one of said opposite end portions of said sheet, and
• means to clamp said sheet shaping members to the opposite ends of said sheet,
• whereby when said sheet is heated to its deformation temperature said shaping members follow said heated sheet in response to said sheet sagging as it softens and said cables apply force through said clamps to said sheet to wrap said ends about said shaping members to conform said clamped ends to said shaping members.