Apparatus for the arching of glass sheets heated to the softening temperature

An apparatus for two-dimensional bending of a glass sheet heated to softening temperature, which comprises:

• a roller hearth bending section having a frame with two lateral edge portions;
• a bearing beam rotatably mounted on each of the two lateral edge portions of the bending section;
• a plurality of elongated straight transport rods in said roller hearth bending section and forming a planar horizontal support surface for a planar glass sheet and for moving the glass sheet into said roller hearth bending section, a first end of each transport rod being rotatably mounted on one of said bearing beams and a second end of each transport rod extends inwardly of said bearing beam and is opposed to and spaced from a corresponding second end of a transport rod rotatably mounted on the other bearing beam, whereby said transport rods form a first roller hearth bending section surface extending across substantially the full distance between the bearing beams,
• a plurality of forming elements in said roller hearth bending section and spaced apart from each other in the direction of travel of the glass sheet, each of said forming elements being interposed between axially adjacent ones of said transport rods and adjustable to form an element of a two-dimensional forming surface corresponding to a desired arched contour of said glass sheet, and
• means for rotating the bearing beams whereby the transport rods are pivoted downwardly between and under the spaced apart forming elements and the forming elements form a second roller hearth bending section support surface corresponding to said desired arched contour of the glass sheet.