Apparatus including mold having covering for annular bending/tempering molds

An apparatus for tempering and bending heated products, comprising:

• a bending station having an upper bending mold for bending a glass sheet;
• a tempering station having tempering means;
• an annular mold member movable between said bending station and said tempering station for transporting a glass sheet bent in the bending station to the tempering station, and a fabric covering positioned to cover at least an upper surface of the annular mold member, whereby a characteristic of said fabric covering varies in accordance with a location thereof in at least a radial direction of the annular mold member.

A mold serving as a support for products during bending and tempering, comprising:

• an annular mold member having an annular upper surface;
• and
• a fabric covering positioned to cover the upper surface, wherein a density characteristic of the covering increases at least from a radially inner periphery of the annular mold member towards a radially outer periphery of the annular mold member.

A fabric covering mounted on an annular mold member and configured to cover an annular upper surface of the annular mold member in a mold serving as a support for products during bending and tempering, wherein the fabric covering has a density characteristic which increases at least from a radially inner periphery of the annular mold member toward a radially outer periphery of the annular mold member wherein said fabric covering further has an air permeability characteristic which increases from the radially inner periphery of the annular mold member to the radially outer periphery of the annular mold member, and wherein the fabric covering comprises a refractory metallic fiber covering having fibers taken from the group consisting of stainless steel and nickel/chrome alloy.