Uniform distribution quenching of formed glass sheets

A glass sheet quench unit for quenching formed glass sheets, comprising:

• a plenum housing of a V shape defining a quench plenum to which pressurized gas is supplied;
• and
• a plurality of nozzle feed rows extending from the plenum housing in a spaced relationship from each other, each nozzle feed row having a pair of generally planar sides, the planar sides of the nozzle feed rows having inner extremities mounted by the plenum housing and also having distal extremities with curved shapes along a longitudinal axis, each nozzle feed row having an elongated nozzle cap that is curved in a direction along the longitudinal axis and has a semicircular cross section perpendicular to the longitudinal axis including projections that are secured to the curved distal extremities of the planar sides of the feed row, and the nozzle cap of each nozzle feed row having nozzle openings for providing quench gas jets that define an equilateral triangular gas jet impingement pattern providing uniformly sized hexagonal quench cells distributed over a formed glass sheet to be quenched to provide uniform quenching.

A glass sheet quench unit for quenching formed glass sheets, comprising:

• a plenum housing of a V shape defining a quench plenum to which pressurized gas is supplied;
• and
• a plurality of nozzle feed rows extending from the plenum housing in a spaced relationship from each other, each nozzle feed row having a pair of generally planar sides, the planar sides of the nozzle feed rows having inner extremities mounted by the plenum housing and also having distal extremities with curved shapes along a longitudinal axis, each nozzle feed row having an elongated nozzle cap that is curved in a direction along the longitudinal axis and has a semicircular cross section perpendicular to the longitudinal axis including projections having inner surfaces with alignment fasteners and adhesive connections to the curved distal extremities of the planar sides of the feed row, and the nozzle cap of each nozzle feed row having nozzle openings for providing quench gas jets that define an equilateral triangular gas jet impingement pattern providing uniformly sized hexagonal quench cells distributed over a formed glass sheet to be quenched to provide uniform quenching.

A method for quenching formed glass sheets comprising:

• positioning a glass sheet, that has been formed from a flat shape to a curved shape along an axis, between a pair of gas quench units of a quench station with the gas quench units curved along said axis;
• and
• distributing gas jets from the pair of quench units for impingement with the formed glass sheet in a uniformly repeating pattern providing uniformly repeating quench cells distributed both along and perpendicular to said axis over the formed glass sheet to provide uniform quenching.

A formed glass sheet quenching method, comprising:

• positioning a glass sheet, that has been formed from a flat shape to a curved shape along an axis, between a pair of upper and lower quench units of a quench station with the gas quench units curved along said axis;
• and
• distributing gas quench jets from curved nozzle caps of the pair of quench units for impingement with the formed glass sheet in equilateral triangular patterns providing uniformly sized hexagonal quench cells distributed both along and perpendicular to said axis over the formed glass sheet to provide uniform quenching and with the equilateral triangular patterns and uniformly sized equilateral hexagonal quench cells provided by each quench unit being aligned with those of the other.

A glass sheet that has been formed from a flat shape to a curved shape along an axis and then quenched comprising:

• oppositely facing formed surfaces between which glass stresses are uniformly distributed both along and perpendicular to said axis by quenching the glass sheet with gas jets that define a uniformly repeating impingement pattern that provides uniformly repeating quench cells distributed both along and perpendicular to said axis over the glass sheet.