JPS594385B2 - Glass sheet cutting method and device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to the art of cutting glass sheets, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for breaking a glass sheet having a score line extending along the glass sheet.

GB 1 110 764 describes a method of folding a glass sheet having score lines extending along the glass sheet, each of which includes a plurality of score lines extending across the glass sheet and It is sufficient to apply a complementary shaped, equally curved bending member consisting of contact members to both sides of the glass sheet and break the glass sheet along a score line parallel to the axis of the bend. This is done by pressing a curved portion against the glass sheet that is insufficient to break the unscored areas of the glass sheet.

In this known method, the folded parts of the glass sheet are normally conveyed along a common conveyor at a distance from each other. The separated folded parts are then stacked onto a pellet. According to the present invention, in a method of folding a glass sheet having at least one score line extending along the glass sheet and separating it into a predetermined number of folded parts, at least one leading edge of the glass sheet is provided. is advanced on a conveying device, and a plurality of forces are applied to at least the leading edge of the glass sheet that diverge from each other in the direction of advancement, lifting the trailing edge of the glass sheet above the leading edge and pushing the trailing edge parallel to the direction of travel. A bending moment that is sufficient to break the glass sheet along the score line, but insufficient to break the area of the glass sheet without the score line, is applied to the trailing edge of the glass sheet around its direction of travel. In addition, the folded portions of the glass sheet formed as described above continue to be advanced on the conveying device and the spreading force is maintained so that the lateral direction between the folded portions of the glass sheet is maintained. A method is provided comprising performing a separation of .

The present invention also provides an apparatus for breaking a glass sheet along a score line extending along the glass sheet, in which a plurality of forces that diverge from each other along the traveling direction are applied to the conveyed glass sheet. a conveyor device configured to act to raise the trailing edge of the glass sheet above the leading edge and to apply force to the trailing edge of the glass sheet around its direction of travel while the glass sheet is passing over the conveyor device; a device for applying a bending moment to the glass sheet, said bending moment being sufficient to break the glass sheet along a score line parallel to the direction of travel, but not in areas of the glass sheet where there is no score line. To provide a device which is insufficient for breaking.

Preferably, the conveyor device consists of a plurality of conveyors that diverge from each other along the direction of travel. It has been found that applying a bending moment to the trailing edge of the glass sheet produces a more accurate and clean break than applying a bending moment to other parts of the glass sheet.

In connection with applying a bending moment to the trailing edge and breaking, the use of a spreading conveyor allows for more accurate and reprocessable positioning of the separated broken glass sheet portions. The bending moment is generated by pressing a curved part against the rear end of the glass sheet, and pressing the rear end of the glass sheet between the lifted end of the expanding conveyor and an overhead contact member having a shape complementary to the pressed curved part. Preferably, it is generated.

Alternatively, the overhead contact member can be of variable shape and adapted to adapt itself to the shape formed by the end of the spreading conveyor both in the lowered position and in the raised position. The overhead contact member may consist of a set of rollers, which are free-rotating or driven at the speed of advance of the glass sheet, and are arranged in a curved line to change the curvature of the overhead contact member. It is adjustable so that it can be worn.

Advantageously, two freely rotatable rollers are arranged on either side of the upstream end of each conveyor and at the same level.

These rollers are raised with the upstream end of the conveyor and act as additional support beneath the advancing glass sheet as it is raised into engagement with the overhead contact member. Said additional support, constituted by rollers, is of particular importance if the score line is located on a gap between adjacent conveyors. In the latter case, the accessory support prevents vertical relative movement or shearing between the folded portions of the glass sheet during folding. The additional support located below the glass sheet has the effect of giving the glass sheet a more even bend when the glass sheet is clamped between the overhead contact member and the conveyor. A sensing device is provided for detecting when the trailing end of the glass sheet is over the upstream end of the conveyor, and responsive to said sensing device to raise the upstream end of the conveyor and the attached support relative to the downstream end of the conveyor. Advantageously, a device is provided to do so.

Said device for lifting the upstream end of the conveyor and associated supports may take the form of a series of spaced apart torque arms secured on a laterally extending torque shaft. Each torque arm is of a predetermined length and the end remote from the torque axis can cooperate with a respective conveyor and paired support rollers to raise them a predetermined vertical distance. The torque shaft is rotated by a motor or by a hydraulically or pneumatically actuated piston and cylinder arrangement, the piston being connected to one or more torque arms. Alternatively, the upstream end of the conveyor and the support rollers may be raised and lowered by a plurality of spaced eccentric cams mounted on a rotatable torque arm, each of said cams being associated with each conveyor and its counterpart. associated with supported rollers. Next, referring to the accompanying drawings, a specific example of the present invention will be described.
Examples will be described in detail. Figure 1 shows a portion of the conveyor line, which is connected to the upstream roller conveyor 2.
and a downstream roller conveyor 6, between which a set of radially spread belt conveyors 4 is arranged.

The spread belt conveyor is in the form of eight endless flexible belts (such as the V-belts shown in FIG. 2). The two central belt conveyors 10, 12 are parallel to each other and to the direction of travel, but the outer belt conveyors diverge from each other along their direction of travel, and the angles between adjacent conveyors are equal.

Although only eight flexible belts are shown in Figure 1,
Depending on the dimensions of the glass sheets to be broken, the number of expanding belt conveyors can be increased or decreased. In operation, a glass sheet 1 having a longitudinal score line 3 is conveyed from an upstream roller conveyor 2 onto a set of expanding belt conveyors 4. The glass seam is detected by the sensor 9 and is broken along the score line 3 as will be described later, forming two broken parts 7 and 8. The two folded parts are separated on the spreading belt conveyor and proceed along parallel tracks onto the downstream conveyor 6.

Figure 2 shows the two endless V-belt conveyors 10 and 1 in Figure 1.
2, the V-belt conveyors 10, 12 are arranged on either side of a center line passing through the pair of spread-out belt conveyors.

A rubber roller 14 is arranged on each side of each V-belt conveyor, so that two rubber rollers 14 are provided in association with each V-belt conveyor. V-belt conveyors and their associated pairs of rubber rollers are designated by reference number 2.
0, 22 and are vertically movable. The two rubber rollers 14 and the upstream portion of the V-belt conveyor can be raised or lowered with their respective support frames as described below with respect to FIGS. 3 and 4.

Above the V-belt conveyor is an overhead contact member consisting of a set of driven or freely rotatable rollers 16 adjustably mounted on a support 18 on a curved line A--A.

As shown in FIG. 4, the endless V-belt conveyor 12 passes around a drive wheel 24 and a freewheel 26 along a V-shaped groove 13 formed on the periphery of the support structure 15 (see also FIG. 2). drive along.

One end portion of the drive wheel 24 and the support structure 15 is attached to a frame 32 which is pivoted at a fixing point 34 .
The drive wheel 24 is rotated by a belt 28, which is driven by a pulley 30 on the drive shaft of a motor, not shown. The freewheel 26 and the other end portion of the support structure 15 are attached to a vertically movable support frame 22.

A lower projection on support frame 22 is secured to the end of vertical rod 38 at point 36.

The vertical rod 38 is configured to reciprocate within a vertically disposed guide member 40. Vertical rod 38 and guide member 40 act as a guiding device to maintain endless V-belt conveyor 12 in a vertical plane as the ends of belt conveyor 12 are raised or lowered. Support frame 22 cooperates with rollers 44 via thrust pads 42.

The roller 44 is mounted on a torque arm 46 supported on a horizontal torque shaft 48, and the weight of the torque arm is equal to the weight of the weight 5.
Balanced by 0. A lower projection on the end portion of the torque arm 46 is connected to a lifting piston and cylinder arrangement 52. The top of the torque arm 46 is connected to the underside of the support frame 22 by a spring 54 biasing the torque arm away from the support frame 22 . To vary the lift height for a given movement of the torque shaft 48, torque arms of different lengths are arranged to cooperate with different spreader belt conveyors.

In FIG. 4, a torque arm 56, which has smaller overall dimensions than the torque arm 46, is shown in broken lines. This torque arm 56 is
It cooperates with another belt conveyor, such as belt conveyor 11 of FIG. 1, in a manner similar to that described for said torque arm 46. To explain the operation, a glass sheet having at least one score line along its length is conveyed on an expanding belt conveyor in the direction of arrow B, and its trailing end is connected to a rubber roller 14 and a driven roller 16. When the tail end is reached between the two ends, the trailing end is sensed by the sensor 9.

Sensor 9 signals to actuate a hydraulically or pneumatically actuated device (not shown) operatively connected to piston and cylinder device 52 . Piston/cylinder device 5
Piston 2 is moved upward, causing torque arm 46 to rotate clockwise. Clockwise rotation of torque arm 46 also causes torque shaft 48 to rotate, simultaneously causing clockwise rotation of all torque arms attached to the torque shaft at intervals along its length. make it move. A roller 44 mounted on the top of each torque arm presses against a respective support frame (e.g. 22) mounted on the upstream portion of the respective spread belt conveyor. In this way, the upstream part of each belt conveyor has fixed points 3
4 is raised relative to the downstream end of the conveyor pivoting around 4. Each conveyor has a vertical rod 38 and a guide member 4.
The height to which each belt conveyor is lifted is maintained in its vertical plane during lifting by its respective guiding device constituted by Depending on the angle at which the glass sheet is positioned, the upper surface of the trailing end of the glass sheet is preset to bring into engagement with the driven roller 16. Each support frame 2
Each pair of rollers 14 mounted on 0,22 is raised to the same height as the upstream end of the respective conveyor. In this way, the upstream portion of the spreader belt conveyor is pivoted upwardly, and the end of the conveyor forms a lateral curvature complementary to the set of driven rollers 16. As the glass sheet advances on the spreader belt conveyor between the driven roller 16 and the rubber roller 14, a bending moment is created around the score line 3 by pressing the curved portion against the trailing end of the glass sheet. The magnitude of the bending moment depends on the curved portion pressed against the glass sheet, where the glass sheet is broken along the score line, but the area of the glass sheet without the score line is not broken. Adjusted as follows. After the score line has been broken, the piston-cylinder arrangement 52 moves down the spreader belt conveyor.
As a safety device, each spring 54 initially urges the torque arm away from the support frame 22 and then provides a pulling force to assist in retracting the torque arm and lowering the belt conveyor before the next sheet of glass arrives. Other means than a piston-cylinder arrangement can also be used to lift the spreader belt conveyor. For example, the torque shaft could be equipped with multiple eccentric cams or links along its length, each cam or link cooperating with a respective belt conveyor to raise or lower that conveyor. The angle of inclination in the horizontal plane between each spreading belt conveyor and the direction of travel determines the extent to which the folded portions of the glass sheet are separated. In Figure 3, the central conveyor 1
0,12 are parallel, but the angle of inclination between adjacent conveyors on each side of this central conveyor varies in steps of 1/2. However, it is also possible to set the inclination angle between adjacent conveyors to vary by less than or more than 1/2. In a typical installation, 22 spread belt conveyors are used - 11 belt conveyors on each side of the centerline, with an inclination angle of 1/2 between adjacent conveyors. .

The set of driven rollers 16 are set with a fixed radius of curvature of 516 inches (13.1 m), and the torque arms each have a radius of curvature of It has a varying radius of curvature, such that it lies on a curve with a radius of curvature of .1 m (516 inches).

An advantage of the spread belt conveyor is that opposing lateral forces are applied to each portion of the glass sheet during folding.

The opposing force applies a tensile force across the score line in the plane of the glass sheet, separating the folded portions as they are formed. The reason for this is that the belt is located within the groove. In this way, the folding of the glass sheet is facilitated and the shear forces between the two sides of the folded portion are reduced. Similarly, adjacent glass sheets are prevented from damaging each other by contacting each other. A further advantage is that the broken part of the glass sheet is placed in a precisely defined position on the downstream roller conveyor 6 in the correct rectangular shape, i.e. with the side edges parallel to the center line of the conveyor system and It can be transported such that the edges and trailing edge are vertical.

In contrast, conventional devices that use skiving rollers to separate the folded portions of the glass sheet tend to transport the folded portions to unpredictable locations. Furthermore, in the present invention, since only one end of the apparatus is actuated, the cycle time between each glass sheet running along the conveyor line can be reduced to low numbers, for example on the order of one second. Although the above-described embodiments have described pressing uniform lateral curves against the glass sheet in order to break the glass sheet, the present invention also encompasses the concept of using non-uniform curves. should be understood.

Additionally, having illustrated and described a particular embodiment of an apparatus for acting on a glass sheet having a single score line along its length to form two broken sections; The present invention operates on a glass sheet having a plurality of longitudinal score lines, for example two score lines, to form three folded parts, or It will be appreciated that the sheet can be acted upon to form four folded sections.

The car 2 on the downstream side of the car 26 on the upstream side of the belt conveyor 12
It is advantageous to drive 4 (as described above).

This is in order to simplify the mechanism by not providing a drive in the area of the upstream end of the conveyor where the lifting mechanism is located. Furthermore, instead of providing a separate drive belt 28 for the drive wheel 24 as previously described, the drive power to the drive wheel 24 can be transmitted by the belt conveyor 12 itself, if desired. In this case, the belt conveyor 12 is of long construction and is arranged to run from the car 24 around the drive pulley 30 and around the car 26 on the upstream side via suitable tensioning devices at appropriate positions along its return path. Ru. moreover,
Instead of having torque arms of different lengths, as shown by torque arms 46, 56 in FIG. 44 at different positions of the torque arm, i.e., at different distances from the torque axis 48, to obtain different lift heights of the upstream end of each belt conveyor as required to obtain the desired lateral curvature. Can be installed.

Also, in place of the rollers 44 acting on the thrust pad 42 described in the previous embodiment, a suitable pivot link can be provided between the support frame 22 and the torque arm 46, if desired. In some embodiments, roller 14 shown in FIG. 2 may be omitted.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a device constituting an embodiment of the invention installed on a conveyor line with an expanding conveyor. FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the leading portion of the expanding conveyor taken along the line - in FIG. 4. FIG. FIG. 3 is an enlarged plan view of the spreading conveyor. FIG. 4 is a side view of one conveyor and lifting mechanism. 1...Glass sheet, 2...Upstream roller conveyor, 3...
... Cut line, 4 ... Downstream roller conveyor, 9 ... Sensor, 14 ... Rubber roller, 15 ... Support structure, 16 ... Driven roller, 22 ... Support frame, 46 ... Torque arm, 52 ... Piston cylinder device.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. Advance at least a leading edge of a glass sheet having at least one score line extending along the glass sheet on a conveying device, and advance the glass sheet along the score line parallel to the direction of travel. Folding the glass sheet by applying a bending moment about the direction of advancement of the glass sheet that is sufficient to break the glass sheet, but insufficient to break the non-score area of the glass sheet. In the method of breaking and separating the glass sheet into a predetermined number of broken parts, the trailing edge of the glass sheet is lifted above the leading edge to apply the bending moment to the trailing edge of the glass sheet, and at least the leading edge of the glass sheet is A plurality of forces are applied to each other in the advancing direction so that the folded portion of the glass sheet formed in this way continues to advance on the conveying device and the spreading force is maintained, thereby causing the glass sheet to spread out. A method for cutting a glass sheet characterized by performing lateral separation between folded portions of the sheet. 2. The glass sheet according to claim 1, characterized in that a plurality of spreading forces are applied to the glass sheet by conveying the glass sheet onto a plurality of conveyors that are spread out from each other in the traveling direction. Method. 3. By pressing the curved part against the trailing edge of the glass sheet, i.e. between the raised end of the spreading conveyor and an overhead contact member of complementary shape to the curved part being pressed. 3. Method according to claim 2, characterized in that a bending moment is generated by. 4. A device for breaking a glass sheet along a score line extending along the glass sheet by applying a bending moment around the direction of travel of the glass sheet while the glass sheet is passing on a conveyor device. wherein the bending moment is sufficient to break the glass sheet along a score line parallel to the direction of travel, but insufficient to break an area of the glass sheet that does not have a score line; In the cutting device, the conveyor device includes a plurality of conveyors 10, 11, 12 that are spread out from each other along the direction of travel, so as to apply a plurality of forces that spread out from each other along the direction of travel to the glass sheet; A glass sheet cutting device is provided at the upstream end of the conveyor with a device 52, 22, 16 for lifting the trailing edge of the glass sheet above the leading edge and applying the bending moment to the trailing edge of the glass sheet. 5. characterized in that a device 52 is provided for pressing the rear end of the glass sheet between the lifted end of the conveyor 11 and the overhead contact members 16, 18 of complementary shape to the pressed curved part; , the apparatus according to claim 4. 6. Device according to claim 5, characterized in that the overhead contact member consists of a set of rollers 16 arranged in a curved line. 7. Device according to claim 5 or 6, characterized in that the overhead contact member 16 is of adjustable shape. 8. The glass sheet cutting device according to claim 4, wherein rollers 14 are disposed on both sides of the upstream end of each conveyor 10, 11, 12 at the same level as the upstream end. 9. The upstream end of each conveyor so that the rollers 14 are raised with the upstream end of the conveyor to act as an additional support under the advancing glass sheet as the glass sheet is raised into engagement with the overhead contact member 16. nearby roller 1
9. Device according to claim 8, characterized in that a device 52 for lifting 4 is provided. 10. A sensing device 9 is provided for detecting when the trailing edge of the glass sheet is over the upstream end of the conveyor, and a device 52 responsive to said sensing device is provided to raise the upstream end of the conveyor. Device according to any one of claims 4 to 9, characterized in that: 11 A device 52 for lifting the upstream ends of the conveyors 10, 11, 12 and ancillary support rollers 14 comprises a series of spaced torque arms 46 secured to a laterally extending torque shaft 48. 11. Device according to claim 9 or 10, characterized in that: