WO2015154722A1

WO2015154722A1 - Flat glass tempering method and device

Info

Publication number: WO2015154722A1
Application number: PCT/CN2015/076402
Authority: WO
Inventors: Yan Zhao
Original assignee: Luoyang Landglass Technology Co., Ltd.
Priority date: 2014-04-11
Filing date: 2015-04-13
Publication date: 2015-10-15
Also published as: CN103896482B; TW201544465A; CN103896482A; TWI655161B

Abstract

A flat glass tempering method and a flat glass tempering device using the method. The method comprises a step of heating flat glass in a heating furnace and a step of tempering in a tempering unit which is composed of conveying rollers and chiller, wherein a step of pre-setting a high-temperature softened glass plate discharged from the heating furnace is provided between the heating step and the tempering step; the pre-setting step is specifically carried out in the following way: pre-cooling the glass plate with gentle breeze before the glass plate is fed into the tempering unit, so that the rigidity of the glass plate is improved, wherein the pressure of the gentle breeze acting on the surface of the glass plate is smaller than that of cooling air acting on the surface of the glass plate in the tempering unit, and the pressure formed by the gentle breeze is small enough to avoid or reduce deformation of the glass plate, caused by air pressure, as much as possible.

Description

Flat Glass Tempering Method and Device

Technical Field

The present invention relates to a flat glass tempering method and a flat glass tempering device using the method.

Background Art

As shown in Fig. 1, an existing flat glass tempering device generally includes a glass plate heating furnace and a tempering unit which is composed of chiller and conveying rollers, wherein reference note 1 refers to the glass plate heating furnace, reference note 2 refers to the conveying rollers, reference note 3 refers to the chiller, and reference note 4 refers to a glass plate. During working, the glass plate is heated first in the heating furnace, then the glass plate is conveyed from the heating furnace to the tempering unit by the conveying rollers, and the quenching nozzles above and below the conveying rollers in the tempering unit blow air to the glass plate to realize the cooling and tempering the glass plate.

Because the glass plate is tempered by air cooling, the air blown from the chiller must have enough speed and volume, so that the glass plate reaches enough cooling speed and is tempered. With the reduction of the thickness of the glass plate, the cooling speed required for tempering the glass plate is increased, so that the speed and volume of the cooling air need to be increased. Under the condition that the same chiller are used, the pressure of the cooling air in the chiller only needs to be increased to 1,600-3,000Pa when 6mm glass is tempered, and needs to be increased to 14,000Pa when 3mm glass plate is tempered； and for the glass plate of which the thickness is further reduced, the pressure of the cooling air needs to be further increased.

When the air blown from the chiller cools the glass plate, air pressure is also produced on the surface of the glass plate. As shown in Fig. 2, when the front end of the glass plate 4 discharged from the heating furnace 1 advances to the space between the first pair of chiller 3 which are arranged vertically oppositely and is in a suspended state, the front end of the glass plate 4 is cooled by the cooling air blown from the chiller 3 and bears the air pressure impact of the cooling air acting on the surface of the glass plate at the same time. Although the chiller 3 are arranged vertically in pairs, nozzles or spouts in the upper and lower chiller 3 are difficult to be completely aligned with each other； the pressure of the cooling air in the upper and lower chiller 3 also has tiny difference under the influence of air resistance of cooling air delivery pipelines； under the limitation of installation space, the distances between the nozzles or spouts in the upper and lower chiller 3 and the surface of the glass plate 4 are very difficult to be completely identical； moreover, the cooling air delivered by a fan has certain pulsation no matter on pressure or flow rate； in addition, the glass plate 4 itself has certain gravity； therefore, the stress balance of the glass plate 4 in the vertical direction is difficult to maintain under the action of cooling air pressure, the high-temperature softened glass plate 4 easily jitters and is deformed accordingly under the action of an upward or downward force, and particularly, the deformation caused by jitter at the front part and the rear part of the conveying direction of the glass plate 4 is more prominent. Therefore, the flat tempered glass processed in the prior art universally has the defect of high waviness as shown in Fig. 3.

Invention Contents

Aiming at the defects in the prior art, the aim of the present invention is to provide a flat glass tempering method and further provide a flat glass tempering device using the method.

To fulfill the above aim, the flat glass tempering method of the present invention includes a step of heating flat glass in a heating furnace and a step of tempering in a tempering unit which is composed of conveying rollers and chiller, wherein a step of pre-setting a high-temperature softened glass plate discharged from the heating furnace is provided between the heating step and the tempering step； the pre-setting step is specifically carried out in the following way: pre-cooling the glass plate with gentle breeze before the glass plate is fed into the tempering unit, so that the rigidity of the glass plate is improved, wherein the pressure of the gentle breeze acting on the surface of the glass plate is smaller than that of cooling air acting on the surface of the glass plate in the tempering unit, and the pressure formed by the gentle breeze is small enough to avoid or reduce deformation of the glass plate, caused by air pressure, as much as possible.

Further, the pre-setting step is completed by a pre-setting device arranged between the heating furnace and the tempering unit, and the pre-setting device is composed of conveying rollers and chiller.

Further, the pre-setting device is provided with at least one pair of chiller arranged vertically oppositely.

Further, the pressure of cooling air in the chiller of the pre-setting device is lower than that of cooling air in the chiller of the tempering unit, and is selected from a range of 50-1,200Pa according to different thicknesses of glass plates to be processed .

Further, the pre-setting device is provided with multiple pairs of chiller arranged vertically oppositely, and the coverage of the multiple pairs of chiller along the conveying direction of the glass plate does not exceed 1,200mm.

Further, the coverage of the multiple pairs of chiller along the conveying direction of the glass plate does not exceed 800mm.

A flat glass tempering device using the above method of the present invention includes a glass plate heating furnace and a glass plate tempering unit which is composed of conveying rollers and chiller, wherein a glass plate pre-setting device is arranged between the heating furnace and the tempering unit, the pre-setting device is also composed of conveying rollers and chiller, gentle breeze is blown from the chiller in the pre-setting device, the air pressure of the gentle breeze acting on the surface of a glass plate is smaller than that of cooling air blown from the chiller in the tempering unit and acting on the surface of the glass plate, and the air pressure formed by the gentle breeze is small enough to avoid or reduce deformation of the glass plate, caused by air pressure, as much as possible.

Further, the pre-setting device forms the gentle breeze by reducing the pressure of cooling air in the chiller thereof, and the pressure of cooling air in the chiller of the pre-setting device is selected from a range of 50-1,200Pa according to different thicknesses of glass plates to be processed.

Further, nozzles or spouts of which the side walls are formed by flat plates are densely distributed in the chiller of the pre-setting device.

Further, the pre-setting device forms the gentle breeze by reducing the quantity of the nozzles or spouts in the chiller thereof, and/or reducing the apertures of the nozzles or spouts in the chiller, and/or prolonging the distances between the nozzles or spouts in the chiller and the surface of the glass plate.

Further, the cooling air nozzles or spouts in the chiller of the pre-setting device are slit-shaped.

By pre-setting the high-temperature softened glass plate, the rigidity of the glass plate is improved, the capability of the glass plate of resisting jitter caused by air pressure in the tempering unit is improved, deformation caused by the air pressure of the glass plate is reduced, and the quality of the flat tempered glass is improved. Compared with the flat tempered glass processed in the prior art, the waviness of the flat tempered glass processed according to the present invention and having the thickness of 6mm may reach 0.07mm/300mm and is much lower than the waviness (which is 0.15mm/300mm) of the flat tempered glass processed in the prior art.

Brief Description of the Drawings

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of an existing flat glass tempering device；

Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a state that a glass plate is influenced by air pressure relatively seriously；

Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of flat tempered glass processed in the prior art；

Fig. 4a is a structural schematic diagram of embodiment 1 of a flat glass tempering device of the present invention；

Fig. 4b is a distribution schematic diagram of cooling air spouts in

chiller

3 and 5 in embodiment 1；

Fig. 4c is another schematic diagram of cooling air spouts in the air grid 5 in embodiment 1；

Fig. 5a is a structural schematic diagram of embodiment 2 of the flat glass tempering device of the present invention；

Fig. 5b is a distribution schematic diagram of cooling air spouts in chiller in embodiment 2；

Fig. 6a is a structural schematic diagram of embodiment 3 of the flat glass tempering device of the present invention；

Fig. 6b is a distribution schematic diagram of cooling air spouts in an air grid 8 in embodiment 3；

Fig. 7a is a structural schematic diagram of embodiment 4 of the flat glass tempering device of the present invention；

Fig. 7b is a distribution schematic diagram of cooling air spouts in chiller in embodiment 4.

Detailed Description

The present invention will be described below in combination with embodiments.

Embodiment 1

Fig. 4a and Fig. 4b show embodiment 1 of a flat glass tempering device of the present invention. The flat glass tempering device in this embodiment includes a glass plate heating furnace 1, a glass plate pre-setting device 6 composed of conveying rollers 2 and chiller 5, and a glass plate tempering unit 7 composed of conveying rollers 2 and chiller 3.

During working, the pressure of cooling air in the chiller 5 is further lower than that of cooling air in the chiller 3, e.g. for a glass plate with the thickness of 6mm, the pressure of cooling air in the chiller 5 is 1,200Pa, and the pressure of cooling air in the chiller 3 is 2,250Pa； for a glass plate with the thickness of 5mm, the pressure of cooling air in the chiller 5 is 1,000Pa, and the pressure of cooling air in the chiller 3 is 3,600Pa； for a glass plate with the thickness of 4mm, the pressure of cooling air in the chiller 5 is 800Pa, and the pressure of cooling air in the chiller 3 is 7,200Pa； for a glass plate with the thickness of 3mm, the pressure of cooling air in the chiller 5 is 50Pa, and the pressure of cooling air in the chiller 3 is 14,000Pa； thus, the cooling air blown from the chiller 5 is gentle breeze acting on the surface of a glass plate 4 and having very low air pressure. The side wall, facing the glass plate 4, of each air grid 5 is a flat plate, and as shown in Fig. 4b, spouts are densely distributed in the air grid 5. Moreover, the aperture of the spouts in the chiller 5 is smaller than that of the spouts in the chiller 3, so that the high-temperature softened glass plate 4 may be pre-cooled and pre-set more uniformly under the condition that very low air pressure is maintained.

The chiller 5 and the chiller 3 may be supplied with air by the same bellows, so the volume of air entering the chiller 5 needs to be reduced through a control valve to reduce the pressure of cooling air in the chiller 5.

Of course, the chiller 5 and the chiller 3 may also be supplied with air by air supply devices with different pressures.

Cooling air spouts with slit structures may also be adopted on each air grid 5 as shown in Fig. 4c.

Embodiment 2

Fig. 5a and Fig. 5b show embodiment 2 of the flat glass tempering device of the present invention. Different from embodiment 1, the pre-setting device 6 in embodiment 2 includes two pairs of chiller 6-1 and 6-2 arranged vertically oppositely. Moreover, as shown in Fig. 5b, the spouts in the chiller 6-2 are more than those in the chiller 6-1, so that air pressure formed on the surface of the glass plate 4 by gentle breeze blown from the chiller 6-2 may be appropriately increased relative to the chiller 6-1 to further improve the pre-setting effect of the glass plate 4.

Embodiment 3

Fig. 6a and Fig. 6b show embodiment 3 of the flat glass tempering device of the present invention. The pressure of cooling air in the chiller 8 of the glass plate pre-setting device 6 is the same as that of cooling air in the chiller 3 of the tempering unit 7 in this embodiment.

To reduce the air pressure formed on the surface of the glass plate 4 by cooling air in the pre-setting device 6 so as to blow required gentle breeze from the chiller 8, the quantity of cooling air spouts in the air grid 8 needs to be reduced as shown in Fig. 6b.

Embodiment 4

Fig. 7a and Fig. 7b show embodiment 4 of the flat glass tempering device of the present invention. It is the same as embodiment 3 in that the pressure of cooling air in the chiller of the pre-setting device 6 is the same as that of cooling air in the chiller 3 of the tempering unit 7. The difference lies in that the pre-setting device 6 in embodiment 4 includes two pairs of chiller arranged vertically oppositely, and as shown in Fig. 7b, the spouts in the chiller 8-2 are increased but the apertures are reduced relative to the chiller 8-1.

By arranging the cooling air spouts in the chiller 8-1 and the chiller 8-2 in such a way, air pressure formed on the surface of the glass plate 4 by gentle breeze blown from the chiller 8-2 may be appropriately increased relative to the chiller 8-1, to further improve the pre-setting effect of the glass plate 4.

Listed above are several examples of forming the gentle breeze in the pre-setting device 6. It should be noted herein that, the above technical means for obtaining the required gentle breeze may be adopted separately or combined as required. For example, in order that the required gentle breeze is blown from the chiller in the pre-setting device 6, the quantity and the aperture of the spouts may be reduced at the same time, and the pressure of cooling air in the chiller may also be reduced simultaneously. To shorten the length of the document, the technical means are not introduced one by one herein through examples.

In addition,

embodiments

3 and 4 above introduce the condition that the pressure of cooling air in the chiller of the pre-setting device 6 is the same as that of cooling air in the chiller of the tempering unit 7, and the required gentle breeze may be formed likewise after the cooling air blown from the chiller of the pre-setting device 6 arrives at the surface of the glass plate 4 by prolonging the distances between the spouts in the chiller and the surface of the glass plate.

It should also be noted that, the technical means for obtaining the gentle breeze are described by arranging the chiller vertically in the above embodiments. In specific application, the required gentle breeze may be obtained by adopting different technical means for upper chiller and lower chiller in air grid pairs respectively as required. Moreover, when the gentle breeze is obtained by reducing the pressure of cooling air in the chiller and the pre-setting device includes multiple pairs of chiller, the pressure of cooling air in the multiple pairs of chiller may be identical or different according to the pre-setting effect.

The width of the pre-setting device, namely the coverage along the conveying direction of the glass plate, may be selected according to the pre-setting effect of the glass plate； when the air pressure of the adopted gentle breeze is relatively high or the pressure of cooling air in the chiller is relatively high, a narrower pre-setting device may be selected； and when the selected width of the pre-setting device is relatively large, e.g. 1,200mm, the gentle breeze of which the air pressure is further reduced may be adopted, or the pressure of cooling air in the chiller is further reduced. Taking the glass plate with the thickness of 6mm as an example, when the width of the pre-setting device is 800mm, the pressure of cooling air in the chiller may be reduced to 150Pa.

The pre-setting device 6 is used for preliminarily hardening the high-temperature softened glass plate 4 to improve the capability of the glass plate 4 of resisting jitter caused by air pressure in the tempering unit 7, so pre-setting of the glass plate 4 should not influence normal tempering of the glass plate 4 in the following tempering unit 7.

It should also be emphasized that, for clear description, the pre-setting device and the tempering unit are denominated separately in methods in the embodiments and the summary of the invention above. However, in practical application, for simplifying the structure of equipment to facilitate manufacturing and installation of the equipment, the pre-setting device 6 and the tempering unit 7 may be integrally made and collectively named as a glass plate tempering unit.

The above embodiments are merely used for describing the thought of the present invention, rather than limiting the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

A flat glass tempering method, comprising a step of heating flat glass in a heating furnace and a step of tempering in a tempering unit which is composed of conveying rollers and chiller, wherein a step of pre-setting a high-temperature softened glass plate discharged from the heating furnace is provided between the heating step and the tempering step； the pre-setting step is specifically carried out in the following way: pre-cooling the glass plate with gentle breeze before the glass plate is fed into the tempering unit, so that the rigidity of the glass plate is improved, wherein the pressure of the gentle breeze acting on the surface of the glass plate is smaller than that of cooling air acting on the surface of the glass plate in the tempering unit, and the pressure formed by the gentle breeze is small enough to avoid or reduce deformation of the glass plate, caused by air pressure, as much as possible.
The method of claim 1, wherein the pre-setting step is completed by a pre-setting device arranged between the heating furnace and the tempering unit, and the pre-setting device is composed of conveying rollers and chiller.
The method of claim 2, wherein the pre-setting device is provided with at least one pair of chiller arranged vertically oppositely.
The method of claim 3, wherein the pressure of cooling air in the chiller of the pre-setting device is lower than that of cooling air in the chiller of the tempering unit, and is selected from a range of 50-1, 200Pa according to different thicknesses of glass plates to be processed .
The method of claim 4, wherein the pre-setting device is provided with multiple pairs of chiller arranged vertically oppositely, and the coverage of the multiple pairs of chiller along the conveying direction of the glass plate does not exceed 1, 200mm.
The method of claim 5, wherein the coverage of the multiple pairs of chiller along the conveying direction of the glass plate does not exceed 800mm.
A flat glass tempering device using the method of claims 1-6, comprising a glass plate heating furnace and a glass plate tempering unit which is composed of conveying rollers and chiller, wherein a glass plate pre-setting device is arranged between the heating furnace and the tempering unit, the pre-setting device is also composed of conveying rollers and chiller, gentle breeze is blown from the chiller in the pre-setting device, the air pressure of the gentle breeze acting on the surface of a glass plate is smaller than that of cooling air blown from the chiller in the tempering unit and acting on the surface of the glass plate, and the air pressure formed by the gentle breeze is small enough to avoid or reduce deformation of the glass plate, caused by air pressure, as much as possible.
The flat glass tempering device of claim 7, wherein the pre-setting device forms the gentle breeze by reducing the pressure of cooling air in the chiller thereof, and the pressure of cooling air in the chiller of the pre-setting device is selected from a range of 50-1, 200Pa according to different thicknesses of glass plates to be processed .
The flat glass tempering device of claim 8, wherein nozzles or spouts of which the side walls are formed by flat plates are densely distributed in the chiller of the pre-setting device.
The flat glass tempering device of claim 7, wherein the pre-setting device forms the gentle breeze by reducing the quantity of the nozzles or spouts in the chiller thereof, and/or reducing the apertures of the nozzles or spouts in the chiller, and/or prolonging the distances between the nozzles or spouts in the chiller and the surface of the glass plate.
The flat glass tempering device of claim 7, wherein the cooling air nozzles or spouts in the chiller of the pre-setting device are slit-shaped.