Designing method of a glass-plate-aimed bending mold making use of a 3-dimensional CAD application for solid models

A designing method of a new divided-type gravity-sagging/bending mold intended for use with a new glass plate making use of a 3-dimensional CAD application for solid models, said method comprising the steps of:

• providing bending-shape data of the new glass plate to be formed by the new divided-type gravity sagging/bending mold to be designed;
• retrieving art existing solid-model of an existing divided-type gravity-sagging/bending mold from a solid model database, the existing solid-model determined based on bending-shape data of an existing;
• glass plate;
• selectively replacing the bending-shape data of the existing glass plate bending-shape data of the new glass plate;
• remodeling the existing solid-model to generate a new solid model of the new divided-type gravity-sagging/bending mold based on new design values, the new design values determined by automatically modifying design values of the existing solid-model required to be modified due to the replacing of the bending-shape data of the existing glass plate and by automatically inheriting design values of the existing solid-model not required to be modified due to the replacing of the bending-shape data of the existing glass plate;
• judging whether predetermined design criteria for any bending mold designed using the CAD application are satisfied by the new design values, or not;
• when the new design values do not satisfy the predetermined design criteria, modifying the new design values until the predetermined design criteria are satisfied;
• and
• when the new design values satisfy the predetermined design criteria, automatically preparing a drawing of the new divided-type gravity-sagging/bending mold based on data of the new solid model.

A designing method of a new press-bending mold intended for use with a new glass plate making use of a 3-dimensional CAD application for solid models, said method comprising the steps of:

• (a) providing bending-shape data of the new glass plate to be formed by the new press-bending mold to be designed;
• (b) retrieving, from a solid model database, an existing solid-model of an existing press-bending mold for an existing glass plate having a most analogous shape to a bending shape of the new glass plate to be formed, the existing solid-model determined based on bending-shape data of the existing glass plate;
• (c) matching the bending-shape data of the new glass plate to be formed with the bending-shape data of the existing glass plate to provide matched pairs of bending-shape data, and for each matched pair of bending-shape data, selectively exchanging the bending-shape data of the existing glass plate with the bending-shape data of the new glass plate;
• (d) remodeling the existing solid-model into a new solid model of the new press-bending mold for the new glass plate based upon new design values, the new design values determined by automatically modifying design values of the existing solid-model required to be modified due to the exchanging of the bending-shape data of the existing glass plate and by automatically inheriting design values of the existing solid-model not required to be modified due to the exchanging of the bending-shape data of the existing glass plates;
• (e) judging whether predetermined design criteria for any bending mold designed using the CAD application are satisfied by the new design values, or not;
• (f) when the new design values do not satisfy the predetermined designing criteria, modifying the new design values until the predetermined design criteria are satisfied.
• (g) when the values of the predetermined parameters satisfy the predetermined design criteria, creating press-bending-mold fabricating data based on data of new solid model.

A designing system of a new press-bending mold intended for use with a new glass plate making use of a 3-dimensional CAD application for solid models, said system comprising:

• relevant-model selecting means for retrieving, from a solid model database, an existing solid-model of an existing press-bending mold for an existing glass plate having a most analogous shape to a bending shape of the new glass plate to be formed by the new press-bending mold to be designed;
• glass-shape exchanging means for matching bending-shape data of the existinig glass plate with bending-shape data of the new glass plate to provide matched pairs of bending-shape data, and for each matched pair of bending-shape data, selectively exchanging the bending-shape date of the existing glass plate with the bending-shape data of the new glass plate;
• remodeling means for remodeling the existing solid-model into a new solid model of the new press-bending mold for the new glass plate based upon new design values, the new design values determined by automatically modifying the existing design values of the existing solid-model required to be modified as a result of the exchanging between the bending-shape data of the existing glass plate and the new glass plates, and by automatically inheriting the existing design values of the existing solid-model not required to be modified due to the exchanging between the bending-shape data of the existing glass plates and the new glass plate;
• modified-parameter reflecting means for reflecting modifiable parameters into the new solid model;
• and
• design-data preparing means for creating press-bending mold fabricating data based on data of the new solid model.