Method for making taxidermic eyes
OwnerJohn W. Crossleyinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of manufacturing taxidermic glass eyes and the like utilizes flat sheets of glass. This glass is printed with the markings and coloring for the eye image. The printing is accomplished by silk screening or other production methods. The eye is then shaped by heating the glass to a plastic state while being positioned over an opening. The heated glass slumps to form the eye shape. Excess material is trimmed away once the glass has cooled. A double wall, parabolic curve taxidermic eye is thereby provided.
Claims47
A method of manufacturing glass eyes comprising the following steps:
- selecting a sheet of glass of a thickness appropriate for approximate wall thickness of the manufactured eye;
- depositing a graphic pattern on one side of said sheet, said pattern being the graphics for the eye;
- placing said patterned sheet of glass on a pallet containing an opening, said opening determining the base curvature for the eye;
- heating said patterned sheet of glass on said pallet into the plastic state to cause said to slump through said pallet opening;
- further heating said slumped patterned sheet of glass above the initial plastic state to cause said glas to flow internally thereby forming a free-form generally parabolic outer shaped eye;
- allowing the formed eye to cool;
- and
- trimming any excess glass material away from the formed eye.
The method of 8 wherein said trimming step removes all material from the base of said formed eye.
The method of 20 wherein said trimming step removes all material from the base of said formed eye.
A method of making a prosthesis-type eye comprising the steps of:
- selecting a sheet of optical quality glass of from range of about 1 millimeter to about 5 millimeters in thickness;
- imparting a graphic pattern for an eye on one side of said glass sheet in vitreous enamels;
- placing said printed glass sheet over an open hole mold;
- heating said printed glass sheet and said mold to allow said glass sheet to slump freely through said mold open hole while in the heated plastic state;
- further heating said slumped glass sheet to cause said glass to internally flow said flow thereby forming a free-formed generally parabolic outer shape.
A method of operating a heating system for making a-spherical shaped glass eyes comprising the steps of:
- loading patterned glass sections on a mold pallet containing a plurality of circular holes, one each said hole corresponding to each individual patterned glass section and in alignment therewith;
- placing said loaded mold pallet on a conveyor belt, one end thereof being a loading section;
- operating said conveyor belt at an adjustable but predetermined fixed speed;
- positioning a furnace about a portion of said conveyor belt downstream from said loading section and establishing a discharge section of said conveyor belt following said furnace;
- wherein said furnace is programmably operated with a plurality of different sequential heat zones to heat said glass sections passing there through uniformly from above and below by heat in the infrared range, first into the plastic temperature state to cause each said glass section to slump;
- and
- wherein said furnace is further programmably operated in a plurality of further different sequential heat zones to heat said glass sections passing therethrough into the plastic flow state wherein said glass internally flows to form a generally a-spherical type shape with a pooling of glass forming a thicker wall at the apex region thereof.
A method of forming a glass object from a glass sheet comprising the steps of:
- placing said glass sheet on a mold, said mold having an opening therethrough being the size and shape of the base portion of the object to be formed;
- heating said glass sheet in a predetermined heating sequence to the soften said glass into a plastic state and thereby causing said portion of said glass sheet over said mold opening to slump through said mold opening;
- and
- further heating said glass sheet to a higher temperature to cause a plastic flow of said glass to free-form a generally a-spherical shape.
A method of forming generally a-spherical shaped glass eyes from pre-patterned flat optical grade glass sections using molds containing open holes wherein the hole diameters establish the base diameter for the eyes, comprising the steps of operating a batch autoclave process as follows:
- (a) loading the autoclave with molds containing said open holes with a patterned glass section positioned over each open hole;
- (b) heating said autoclave at about 800 degrees centigrade for about 4.5 minutes;
- (c) then heating said autoclave at about 875 degrees centigrade for about 10 minutes;
- (d) then heating said autoclave at about 900 degrees centigrade for about 10 minutes;
- (e) then heating said autoclave at about 875 degrees centigrade for about 10 minutes;
- (f) then heating said autoclave at about 800 degrees centigrade for about 4.5 minutes;
- (g) then allowing said autoclave to cool while closed to about 125 degrees centigrade;
- and
- (h) then opening said autoclave and allowing said glass to cool under ambient conditions to ambient temperature.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.