JPH05294648A - Glass molding apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide the subject apparatus designed to facilitate setting a glass material in and removing the resultant molded product from a mold and ensuring the glass material not to be loaded during its softening. CONSTITUTION:For a bottom force unit 1 as a component of a mold 10, a lower part mold 3 is fitted in a vertically movable way into the bottom force inserting part 2a of a lower part chase 2 and a positioning rod 23 is put through a penetrating hole 22 provided on this lower part mold 3 to position at the lowest descending point. For a top force unit 11, an upper part mold 13 is fitted to a top force chase 12 to form a flange 13b and brought into contact with a level difference part 12b provided at a top force inserting part 12a to make positioning. Both the chases 2 and 12 are mutually engaged through male and female socket and spigot joints 2b, 12c and a glass material 20 is set in a mold 21; then, mold faces 3a, 13a can come into contact with this glass material 20 in such a state as not to subject a load to the material 20. Setting of the glass material 20 and removing of the resultant molded product (i.e., lens) are made by lifting the lower part mold 3 with a pusher 45.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a glass forming apparatus for forming glass products such as lenses.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In the production of precision optical glass such as lenses, a method of press-molding with a press operating means in a state where a glass material is heated and softened in a molding die is disclosed in, for example, JP-A-62-62. It is known from Japanese Patent No. 29236. The glass forming method according to this conventional technique uses a forming die including a barrel die, a lower die and an upper die guided by the barrel die, and first, a forming die formed between upper and lower forming dies of the forming die. The glass material is set in the part, and the upper material is lowered by heating the glass material in a softened state, and the glass material is subjected to pressurization to perform press molding. ..

[0003]

If the molding die is constructed as described above, the upper mold is used for the work of setting the glass material in the molding part and taking out the press-formed molded product. Although the lower mold is surrounded by the barrel mold and is located inside the barrel mold even if the upper mold is detached, the glass material set and the molded product are It cannot be taken out smoothly and quickly. In particular, when attempting to automate the entire process from setting the glass material in the mold, softening by heating, press molding by pressurization, and cooling after molding to take out the molded product, this glass material It is said that automation of the entire press forming process of the glass material is impossible because the difficulty of the setting work and the taking out work of the formed product becomes a great obstacle.

Further, when the glass material is set in the molding die, the glass material is in contact with not only the lower mold but also the upper mold. Therefore, the load of the upper mold directly acts on the glass material. Therefore, when the glass material is heated to start softening, the load of the upper mold deforms the glass material, which adversely affects the molding accuracy of the molded product.

The present invention has been made in order to solve the problems of the prior art as described above, and its purpose is to set a glass material in a molding die and a molding die for a molded product. Can be taken out very easily, which makes it possible to automate the entire glass forming process, and the load of the upper mold directly acts on the glass material during softening by heating the glass material. It is to provide a glass forming apparatus having a structure capable of preventing the above.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a lower mold having a lower mold which is mounted in a lower body mold so as to be able to move up and down, and which has a means for positioning the lowermost position thereof. A mold comprising a unit and an upper mold unit in which an upper mold is attached to an upper body part that is detachably connected to the lower body part by inrobot fitting so that the upper mold is positioned at a predetermined height position. And an upper mold pressing means for pressurizing the upper mold unit from above, and upper and lower body mold parts are kept in pressure contact with each other by the upper mold pressing means, and an upper molding is performed. A press operating mechanism including a pushing-up means for pushing up the lower molding die from below with the mold fixed, and a press working mechanism after setting a glass material between both molding dies in the molding die to heat and soften it. Is operated is to its characterized in that a configuration in which the press forming.

[0007]

With this structure, the upper die unit can be separated from the lower die unit by raising the upper die unit. Therefore, first, the upper die unit is raised by an appropriate handling means. Further, since the lower mold of the lower mold unit can be moved up and down with respect to the lower body mold part, by raising the lower mold, the mold surface of the lower mold is moved to the upper end of the lower body mold part. The glass material is set above the position and the glass material is set on the mold surface of the lower mold. Thus, the pick-and-place means is used by raising the upper die unit to open the die surface at the upper end surface of the lower die and displace it above the lower body die portion. The glass material can be set easily and with accurate position control.

When the setting of the glass material is completed, the lower mold is lowered to a predetermined position, and then the upper mold unit is lowered to join the upper mold unit to the lower mold unit. The upper body part of the upper mold unit and the lower body part of the lower mold unit are joined together by the seal cage fitting, and the weight of the upper mold unit acts on them, so both are stable in the connected state. To do. Here, since the upper molding die is positioned at the upper body mold portion so as to have a predetermined height position, the interval between the two molding dies can be arbitrarily set by controlling the position of the lower molding die. Then, in the subsequent step, the glass material is softened by heating it, but in order to efficiently transfer heat from the molding die to the glass material, there is no gap between the glass material and the molding die, or Or the gap should be as small as possible. However, it is preferable in order to improve the molding accuracy that the glass material is not loaded as much as possible during the softening by heating. From the above points, the lowermost position of the lower mold is set such that the distance between the upper mold and the lower mold is such that the upper mold can contact the glass material without applying a load. .. As a result, the glass material can be efficiently heated without being deformed during softening. Here, the heating of the glass material can be performed at a position where the glass material is set in the molding die, but at this position, a handling means of the upper die unit, a pick and place means of the glass material, etc. are provided. Therefore, in order to isolate them from heat, it is preferable to transfer them to a heating station by a conveying means such as a conveyor.

When the glass material is softened to a predetermined extent, the glass material is moved to that position or the press molding station, the upper mold pressing means is brought into contact with the upper mold unit, and the upper mold unit is pressed from above to form a cylinder mold. While keeping the parts in a pressed state, the upper mold is fixed, and in this state, the lower mold is pushed up from below by the pushing-up means to mold the glass material and form lenses and other molded products.

When this press molding is completed, the mold is moved to that position or a cooling station to cool the mold. When the mold is cooled, it is moved to that position or the above-mentioned load position, the upper mold unit is lifted by the handling means, and the lower mold is raised, and the molded work piece is taken out by the pick and place means,
Then, by setting a new glass material, press molding of the next glass material is performed.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. First, FIGS. 1 and 2 show the overall configuration of the press molding apparatus. In addition, in this embodiment, the lens is manufactured from a glass material, but it is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to manufacturing other optical glass products and the like.

In the figure, 1 is a lower mold unit, 11 is an upper mold unit, and the lower mold unit 1 and the upper mold unit 11 constitute a molding die 10. The lower die unit 1 has a lower body portion 2 and the lower body portion 2
Is made of a cylindrical member having an outwardly projecting portion at its lower end, and a lower die insertion portion 2a is formed at its center so as to penetrate in the axial direction. A lower molding die 3 having a mold surface 3a formed on the upper end surface is inserted into the lower mold insertion portion 2a in a substantially tightly fitted state, and the lower molding die 3 can be moved up and down along the lower mold insertion portion 2a. Is becoming Further, a heater 4 for heating the molding die 10 by induction heating or the like is fitted at a position above the projecting portion of the lower body portion 2 so as to surround the peripheral body portion.

The upper mold unit 11 has an upper barrel mold portion 12, and like the lower barrel mold portion 2, the upper barrel mold portion 12 has a cylindrical shape with an outwardly projecting portion at its upper end. The upper die insertion part 1 which is made of a member and penetrates in the axial direction at the center thereof.
2a is bored, and an upper molding die 13 having a lower end surface having a die surface 13a is inserted into the upper die insertion portion 12a. A flange portion 13b is formed at an upper end portion of the upper molding die 13, and the flange portion 13b is formed on the upper die insertion portion 12
The upper and lower portions of a are brought into contact with a step portion 12b formed by enlarging the diameter of the upper portion, and the vertical position of the step portion 12b is determined. Further, a heater 14 having the same structure as the heater 4 is surrounded by the peripheral body portion of the upper body mold portion 12 below the projecting portion.

The lower die unit 1 and the upper die unit 11 are detachably connected, and the upper die unit 11 is moved upward as shown in FIG. 2 and the connecting state of both units 1 and 11 shown in FIG. By displacing, it can be displaced to the separated state. In this way, the upper mold unit 11 can be lifted and separated, and lowered to be connected to the lower mold unit 1, but in order to stabilize in the connected state, the upper mold unit 1
1 and the lower die unit 1 are configured to be connected by a seal fitting. That is, the outer diameter portion of the upper end portion of the lower body portion 2 that constitutes the lower die unit 1 has a reduced diameter, and the male cage portion 2b.
And the upper body part 12 of the upper mold unit 11
At the lower end of the
A female stamp portion 12c that fits in is formed. Therefore,
By fitting the male and female imprint portions 2b and 12c, when the upper mold unit 11 is connected to the lower mold unit 1, the upper mold unit 11 is held so as not to relatively move in the horizontal direction. Further, when the upper die unit 11 is connected to the lower die unit 1, the female stamp portion 12c is connected to the male stamp portion 2
In order to smoothly fit into the b, a call-in taper wall 2c is formed above the male cage portion 2b.

Mold surface 3 of lower mold 3 and upper mold 13
Forming part 21 in which glass material 20 is installed between a and 13a
Is formed. Thus, the mold surface 13a of the upper molding die 13 is extended to the position where it enters into the lower barrel mold portion 2, so that the molding portion 21 joins the lower barrel mold portion 12 and the upper barrel mold portion 2 to each other. Avoid the parts, both mold surfaces 3a, 13a and the lower body mold part 2
It is a region defined by the upper part of the lower die insertion part 2a. When the glass material 20 is set in the molding portion 21, the upper molding die 13 is brought into contact with the glass material 20 in order to efficiently transfer heat from the molding die 10 to the glass material 20. It is designed to be as close as possible. However, if the load of the upper molding die 13 directly acts on the glass material 20, the load acts on the glass material 20 from the time when the glass material 20 starts to soften, and the glass material 20 is deformed.

From the above points, the distance between the mold surface 3a and the mold surface 13a in the lower mold 3 and the upper mold 13 is made substantially equal to the thickness of the glass material 20. In the upper molding die 13, the flange portion 13b has a step portion 12b of the upper die insertion portion 12a.
It is in a pre-positioned state by engaging with. On the other hand, the lower molding die 3 can be moved up and down along the lower die insertion portion 2a. For this purpose, the lower mold 3 is provided with a positioning mechanism. As the positioning mechanism, a through hole 22 is provided in the peripheral body portion of the lower molding die 3 so as to penetrate in a direction orthogonal to the axis of the lower molding die 3, and has a vertically elongated through hole 22, and a positioning rod 23 is provided in the through hole 22. It is configured by inserting the positioning rod 23 and fixing both ends of the positioning rod 23 to the lower body mold 2. Thus, under normal conditions, the lower mold 3 is in a lowered state, and the positioning rod 23 abuts on the upper end of the through hole 22, whereby the lower mold 3 is positioned at the lowest position. Further, when the lower mold 3 is raised, the positioning rod 23 is brought into contact with the lower end of the through hole 22, whereby the lower mold 3 is positioned at the highest position. As is clear from FIG. 1, the lowermost position of the lower molding die 3 by the positioning rod 23 is such that the space between the molding surface 3a of the lower molding die 3 and the molding surface 13a of the upper molding die 13 is the glass material. The thickness is set to be equal to 20. The uppermost end position shown in FIG. 2 is set so that the mold surface 3a of the lower molding die 3 is located above the upper end surface of the lower barrel mold portion 2.

When press-molding the glass material 20,
The entire molding die 10 is heated by the heaters 4 and 14 and is raised to, for example, about 500 ° C.
0 is softened. When the glass material 20 is heated in a gas containing oxygen, there is an inconvenience that an oxide film is formed on the surface of the molding die 10, especially the die surfaces 3a and 13a. In order to prevent such a situation, the inside of the molding unit 20 is replaced with an inert gas atmosphere. For this purpose, the lower mold unit 1 and the upper mold unit 11 are provided with gas flow paths 5 and 15, respectively. The gas flow path 5 in the lower mold unit 1 has a passage 5a provided in the lower barrel mold portion 2, and this passage 5a opens into a through hole 22 provided in the lower molding die 3. Further, a groove 5b is provided on the outer peripheral portion of the lower molding die 3 between the forming position of the through hole 22 and the die surface 3a. The groove 5b and the inner peripheral surface of the lower body die portion 2 are connected to each other. A gas passage is formed therebetween. The gas flow passage 15 on the upper die unit 11 side has a passage 15a provided in the upper barrel die portion 12, and this passage 15a opens into an annular groove 15b formed in the peripheral barrel portion of the upper molding die 13. Then, the forming portion of the annular groove 15b on the outer peripheral surface of the upper molding die 13 and the die surface 1
A groove 15c is provided in a portion between the groove 3c and 3a, and a gas passage is formed between the groove 15c and the inner peripheral surface of the upper body mold portion 13.

The passage 5 in these gas flow paths 5 and 15
Nitrogen gas as an inert gas is supplied to a and 15a. In order to perform the atmosphere replacement more efficiently and completely, as shown in FIG. 3, the pipe 30 connected to the gas flow path 5 on the lower mold unit 1 side is connected to the nitrogen gas supply source 31, and A nitrogen gas supply source 31 and a negative pressure source 33 can be switched and connected to a pipe 32 to the gas passage 15 on the upper mold unit 11 side. A flow rate control valve 34 is provided in the middle of the pipe 30, and the pipe 32 is adapted to be selectively connected to a nitrogen gas supply source 31 or a negative pressure source 33 via a switching valve 35, and a flow rate control valve 36. Is provided. The flow rate control valve 34, the switching valve 35, and the flow rate control valve 36 are electromagnetic valves that operate based on the signal from the control means 37, and the flow rate control valves 34 and 36 are based on the control signal from the control means 37. And the opening area is 0 (that is,
It is composed of an electromagnetic proportional valve that can be changed from the closed state) to the fully open state.

The entire process from setting the glass material 21 in the molding unit 20 through press molding to taking out the lens after processing is automated. To this end, as shown in FIG. 4, it comprises a loader / unloader station 40, a heating / cooling station 41, and a press molding station 42, and the molding die 10 forms the glass material 20 in the loader / unloader station 40. 21 and then the heating / cooling station 41 is moved to soften the glass material 20 to an extent necessary for press-forming, press-molded in the press-molding station 42, and returned to the heating / cooling station 41 again. And cooled, and loader / unloader station 40
The lens formed by press molding is taken out and a new glass material 20 is set.

The loader / unloader station 40 has a handling means 43 for moving the upper die unit 11 up and down, and a pick and place means 44 for setting the glass material 20 and taking out the molded lens. It is provided. Further, when the glass material 20 is set or the lens is taken out by the pick-and-place means 44, a pusher 45 for raising the lower mold 3 is provided in order to facilitate the work. .. In the press molding station 42, a plunger 46 for pushing up the lower molding die 3 is provided so as to be able to move up and down, and an upper die pressing means 47 for pressing the upper die unit 11 from above is provided so that it can be raised and lowered. ..

As described above, while the molding die 10 is adapted to reciprocate between the stations 40, 41, 42, it is necessary to set the glass material 20 in the molding section 21 and take out the lens. In order to facilitate the connection, the connection between the upper mold unit 11 and the lower mold unit 1 is carried out by a seal fitting by both female and male seal cage portions 2b, 12c formed in the upper and lower body mold portions 2, 12. There is. For this,
Although the upper mold unit 11 does not fall off from the lower mold unit 1 during transportation, there is a risk that the upper mold unit 11 may shake, rattle, or be displaced due to vibration or the like generated during transportation. .. Therefore, the lower mold unit 1
In order to make the connection between the upper mold unit 11 and the upper mold unit 11 more stable, a mold clamping mechanism is provided.

As the mold clamping mechanism, a negative pressure chamber forming body 50 provided at four locations on the outer periphery of the lower body mold portion 2 of the lower mold unit 1 integrally with or separately from the lower body mold portion 2 and an upper mold The unit 11 includes a negative pressure rod 51 extending from an extending portion of the upper body 12 of the unit 11. A negative pressure chamber 50a is formed in the negative pressure chamber forming body 50, and a suction pipe 52 from a negative pressure source 33 provided for performing atmosphere replacement is connected to the negative pressure chamber 50a. A lead-in hole 53 is formed in the negative pressure chamber 50a at a position facing the negative pressure rod 51. The drawing-in hole 53 has a slightly larger diameter than the outer shape of the negative pressure acting rod 51, and the negative pressure chamber 50a is negatively pressured with the negative pressure acting rod 51 entering the negative pressure chamber 50a through the drawing hole 53. In this state, a force acts in a direction in which the negative pressure rod 51 is drawn into the negative pressure chamber 50a, and a force acts in a direction in which the upper mold unit 11 and the lower mold unit 1 are brought into pressure contact with each other, and a mold clamping force is exerted. To do. Further, when the negative pressure acting rod 51 is fitted into the pull-in hole 53, the pull-in hole 53 is formed with a draw-in portion 53a formed of a tapered wall so as to draw in the negative pressure acting rod 51.

The present embodiment is constructed as described above. First, the molding die 10 is positioned at the loading / unloading station 40, and the glass material 20 is set in the molding section 21. In this work, first, the handling means 43 lifts the upper mold unit 11 to open the mold surface 3a of the lower mold 3 in the lower mold unit 1. Further, since the mold surface 3a is located inside the lower body part 12, the pusher 45 is operated to move the lower body part 1
Raise to a position higher than the upper end of 2. This makes it extremely easy to set the glass material 20 by operating the pick and place means 44. Thus, the handling means 43 can be constructed by a single-axis robot which can be displaced in the vertical direction, and the pick-and-place means 44 can be constructed by a two-axis robot which can be displaced in the longitudinal direction and the vertical direction. The mechanism for performing is relatively simple.

When the glass material 20 is set, the handling means 43 is operated to connect the upper mold unit 11 to the lower mold unit 1. Here, the upper mold unit 11 is provided with a negative pressure acting rod 51 vertically.
Fits into the lead-in hole 53 leading to the negative pressure chamber 50a,
At the time of this fitting, since it is called into the drawing-in portion 53a, it is possible to exert the centering action on the lower mold unit 1 of the upper mold unit 11. Then, by fitting the female cage portion 12c formed on the upper body portion 12 of the upper die unit 11 to the male cage portion 2b of the lower body die portion 2 of the lower die unit 1, both units 1 and 11 are fitted together. It is put together. Here, the upper die unit 11 is aligned with the lower die unit 1 when the negative pressure rod 51 is inserted into the pull-in hole 53, and when it is fitted into the seal cage, it is pulled in to the male seal cage 2b side. Since the wall 2c is formed, this connection does not become difficult even if the seal fitting portion is in a tight fitting state with almost no gap. In order to prevent air from being trapped between the upper molding die 13 and the lower molding die 3 when this inro mating is performed, the pipe 32 leading to the gas flow path 15 is connected to the negative pressure source 33. Then, if the inside is vacuum-sucked, it can be fitted smoothly without resistance.

When the molding die 11 is assembled as described above, first, the atmosphere of the molding portion 21 in which the glass material 20 is arranged is replaced. For this purpose, the lower mold unit 1
The gas flow path 5 on the side and the nitrogen gas supply source 31 are connected to supply the nitrogen gas, and the gas flow path 15 of the upper mold unit 11 is connected to the negative pressure source 33 so that the air in the molding section 21 is connected. Aspirate. As a result, the nitrogen gas smoothly flows into the molding portion 21, is extremely efficient, and has no stagnant portion.
The atmosphere is completely replaced. Here, in order to quickly replace the atmosphere, the flow rate control valves 34 and 36 formed of electromagnetic proportional valves may be fully opened. At the same time, the suction pipe 52 connected to the negative pressure chamber 50a is connected to a negative pressure source to make the inside of the negative pressure chamber 50a negative. As a result, a negative pressure acts on the negative pressure rod 51, and a force acts in the direction of being drawn into the negative pressure chamber 50a, and the upper mold unit 11
Is pressed against the lower mold unit 1 to exert a so-called mold clamping force, and the upper and lower units 1 and 11 are firmly connected.

When the atmosphere replacement in the molding section 21 is completed,
The switching valve 35 is switched to cut off the communication between the gas flow path 15 and the negative pressure source 33, and connect with the nitrogen gas supply source 31. Further, the flow control valves 34 and 36 are throttled to continue supplying a minute amount of nitrogen gas to the gas flow paths 5 and 15. As a result, the pressure inside the molding part 21 is always higher than that of the outside air, the space between the lower body mold part 2 and the lower molding mold 3, the space between the upper body mold part 12 and the upper molding mold 13 and the cage fitting part 2b, It is possible to prevent outside air from entering the molding portion 21 from the joint portion of 12c or the like. Further, the negative pressure chamber 50a is kept connected to the negative pressure source 33.

In this state, the mold 10 is moved to the heating / cooling station 41, and the heaters 4 and 14 are operated to heat the glass material 20 to soften it. In this transition, the mold 10 is conveyed by a conveyer such as a conveyor, but since the upper mold unit 11 is held firmly connected to the lower mold unit 1 by the mold clamping mechanism, some vibration may occur during the conveyance. However, there is no inconvenience that the upper mold unit 11 sways or rattles and is displaced with respect to the lower mold unit 1. The molding die 10 is moved from the loader / unloader station 40 to the heating / cooling station 41 to perform heating. The loading / unloading station 40 is provided with a handling means 43 and a pick-and-place means 44. In order to minimize the influence of heat on these means, it is necessary to carry out the heating at the position of the loader / unloader station 40, if not necessary. May be.

Here, the upper molding die 13 is positioned such that the flange portion 13b of the upper molding die 13 is in contact with the step portion 12b of the upper body die portion 12, and the positioning rod 23 of the lower molding die 3 has the through hole 22. Since the glass material 20 is positioned at the lowest position where it comes into contact with the upper end of the glass material, and the space between the upper and lower mold surfaces 3a and 13a is substantially the same as the thickness of the glass material 20, the glass material 20 has both mold surfaces 3a and 13a. The heat is efficiently transferred from above and below. Moreover, since the load of the upper mold 13 is supported by the contact portion between the flange portion 13b and the step portion 12b, and the load is not applied to the glass material 20, the softening of the glass material 20 starts. However, there is no danger of deformation.

When the glass material 20 is softened to a press-moldable state, the mold 10 is moved to the press-molding station 42. Then, the upper die pressing means 47 installed in the press forming station 42 is operated to bring it into contact with the upper portion of the upper die unit 11. As a result, the upper mold unit 11 and the lower mold unit 1 are firmly connected and fixed. In this state, the plunger 45
By pushing up, the glass material 20 is press-molded to form a lens.

When the press molding is completed, the plunger 45
And lower the upper die pressing means 47 to the upper die unit 11
And the mold 10 is returned to the heating / cooling station 42 to cool the mold 10. At this time, the upper mold 13 is cooled earlier than the lower mold 3 by increasing the flow rate by the flow control valve 36 provided in the pipe 32 and supplying a large amount of nitrogen gas to the upper mold unit 11 side. .. As a result, the mold release between the upper mold 13 and the lens is promoted.

When the mold 10 has cooled to some extent, it is transferred to the loader / unloader station 40. And
The upper mold unit 11 is activated by operating the handling means 43.
Is separated from the lower mold unit 1. As described above, since the cooling of the upper mold 13 is promoted by the supply of the nitrogen gas, the release of the lens from the upper mold 13 is promoted.
It is possible to reliably prevent the inconvenience that the lens is attached to the upper molding die 13 and lifted when the upper die unit 11 is lifted. After that, the pusher 45 is operated to raise the lower molding die 3 to a position where the mold surface 3a is higher than the upper end of the lower barrel mold portion 2, and the lens is taken out by the pick and place means 44, and a new glass material is obtained. Set 20.

As described above, the glass material 20 can be automatically and continuously press-molded to form a lens.

In the embodiment described above, the male cage portion 2b is formed on the lower die unit 1 side, and the upper die unit 11 is formed.
Although the female stamp portion 12c is formed on the side, the positions of the male and female stamp portions may be reversed. Further, the lower molding die 3 is configured to be positioned at the most lowered position and the most raised position. However, by accurately positioning the lower molding die 3 at the most raised position, the load by the pick and place means 44, Although the unloading work can be carried out more smoothly, the configuration in which the stroke of the pusher 45 is strictly controlled can also perform the positioning at the highest position. The point is that the lower mold 3 can be positioned at the lowest position, so that
For example, it is also possible to adopt a configuration in which the inner surface of the lower end portion of the lower die body portion 2 is projected inward and the lower molding die 3 is positioned on this protruding portion.

[0034]

As described above, according to the present invention, the lower die unit, in which the lower die is mounted in the lower barrel die section so that the lower die can be moved up and down, is detachably connected to the lower barrel die section by the cage fitting. Since it is composed of an upper mold unit in which the upper mold is mounted on the upper body mold section so as to be positioned at a predetermined height position, the lower mold unit can be simply moved up and down. It is possible to connect and separate with the bottom mold in the separated state, and by raising the lower mold of the lower mold unit, this lower mold can be completely exposed to the outside. It is extremely easy to take out, and it is possible to easily automate the most necessary work in automating the whole glass molding process, and press molding of glass material is to push up the lower mold. In addition, since it is equipped with means for positioning the lowermost position of the lower mold, by adjusting the relative position between the lower mold and the upper mold, when heating the glass material , Which can be heated most efficiently, and can surely prevent inconveniences such as applying a load from above to the glass material and partially deforming it while heating and softening the glass material. Produce an effect.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a molding die of a press molding apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the molding die showing an operating state different from that of FIG. 1, which is a cross-section taken along line XX in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a structural explanatory view of an atmosphere replacement mechanism of a molding unit.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of the overall configuration of a press molding apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Lower mold unit 2 Lower body part 2a Lower mold insertion part 2b Male imprint part 3 Lower molding die 3a Mold surface 11 Upper mold unit 12 Upper body part 12a Upper die insertion part 12b Step part 12c Female imprint part 13 Upper molding die 13a Mold surface 13b Flange portion 20 Glass material 21 Molding portion 22 Through hole 23 Positioning rod 40 Loader / unloader station 41 Heating / cooling station 42 Press molding station 45 Pusher 46 Plunger 47 Upper die pressing means

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A lower mold unit having means for mounting a lower mold in a lower barrel mold section so as to be able to move up and down, and for positioning the lowermost position of the lower mold unit, and the lower barrel mold section being detachably connected to the lower barrel mold section by a cage fit. The upper mold unit is attached to the upper body unit in such a manner that the upper mold unit is positioned in such a manner that the upper mold unit is positioned at a predetermined height position, and the upper mold unit is provided so as to be able to come into contact with and separate from the upper mold unit. While pressing the upper mold pressing means for pressing from above, the upper and lower body mold parts are kept in pressure contact by this upper mold pressing means, and the upper mold is fixed.
A press operating mechanism including a push-up means for pushing up the lower molding die from below, and a glass material is set between both molding dies in the molding die to heat and soften it, and then the press operating mechanism is operated to perform press molding. A glass forming apparatus characterized by being configured to perform. 2. The upper molding die is extended into the lower barrel mold portion, and a glass material molding portion formed between the upper molding die and the lower molding die is formed at a position in the lower barrel mold portion. The glass forming apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the glass forming apparatus has the above structure. 3. A lowermost position for holding the lower mold in a state in which the glass material set on the lower mold is in contact with the glass material without the own weight of the upper mold, and after the press molding is completed. 2. A structure is provided which comprises a positioning means for pushing up the mold surface of the lower molding die to a predetermined height position and positioning it between the uppermost position where the molded product can be taken out. Or the glass forming apparatus according to 2. 4. A through hole formed by positioning the positioning means in a peripheral body portion of the lower molding die so as to have a predetermined length in the up-down direction, and both ends of the lower body portion which are fitted into the through hole. The glass forming apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the glass forming apparatus comprises a positioning rod fixedly attached to the glass forming apparatus.