Cutting and grinding apparatus for a glass sheet edge

Abrasive tool making process – material – or composition – With carbohydrate or reaction product thereof

Patent

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Details

51283E, 51 5C, 51106R, R24B 910, C03B 3302

Patent

active

053256352

DESCRIPTION:

BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to a cutting and grinding apparatus for a glass sheet edge, comprising a cutting machine for cutting a contour, a crushing machine for removing an edge zone outside the cut contour, a grinding machine for grinding the edges of a glass sheet blank, and a conveyor for carrying a glass sheet blank to each of the above-mentioned machines for performing their respective cutting, edge-removing and grinding operations, said grinding machine comprising two rotatable glass-supporting tables and two grinding heads, positioned relative to the tables in a manner that the edges of glass sheets lying on the tables can each be brought into a contact with its respective grindstone.
This type of automatic cutting and grinding mechanisms are particularly useful in the production of automotive windshields, backlights and side windows. One example of this type of cutting and grinding apparatus is disclosed in the Applicant's laid-open European Patent application EP 0315202. The apparatus disclosed in the cited publication two grinding heads for a single rotatable glass-supporting table, said heads moving towards and away from each other as a glass sheet is rotating therebetween. This arrangement is well suitable for windshields and backlights, which are relatively symmetrical regarding the centre axis of glass. However, this arrangement is poorly suitable for grinding asymmetrical side glazings, since manoeuvring the movements of grinding heads will be difficult to control.
Since in the sequentially performed operations (cutting, edge-crushing, and grinding), the most tedious one is grinding, the production line requires two grinding heads for a grinding machine not to bring down the production capacity of the entire apparatus. In order to eliminate this problem, it is prior known to divide a production line to two parallel grinding machines.
In this prior known apparatus, glass sheets are carried from a primary production line onto grinding machine tables, which are rotated around a stationary axis while manoeuvring a grinding head for providing a grinding feed according to the shape of a glass sheet. From grinding machines said glass sheets are carried onto a parallel line for further treatment. Branching off a production line to run through two independent grinding machine is an expensive and bulky solution and involves a further drawback, namely that the flow of material does not remain linear and, thus, the position oriented for a glass sheet on a cutting table can be no longer utilized in a post-grinding further treatment. The expensive and complicated structure is primarily due to the fact that carrying a glass sheet through a grinding machine requires its own conveyor mechanism and operating a grinding head requires its own handling mechanism.
An object of the invention is to provide a cutting and grinding apparatus of the above-mentioned type capable of achieving a high capacity by using two grinding heads without the above drawbacks.
This object is achieved according to the invention in a manner that the apparatus is further provided with displacement guides for shifting the tables aside from the transfer line of said conveyor, as well as with a displacement mechanism for tables, which is on the one hand controlled to carry out a shifting movement between a transfer line and a grinding head and, on the other hand, an advancing movement during a grinding operation for maintaining the edge of a glass sheet in contact with a grindstone during the rotation of a glass sheet having a shape other than circular.
This apparatus according to the invention is capable of offering the following benefits:
high production capacity;
a simple design and little space needed, since the same displacement mechanism is operated to carry out both a shifting movement and a working advancement, whereby the position of a grinding head can be stationary,
following a grinding operation, a glass sheet can be returned onto the primary conveyor line to the exact position it was shifted to a grinding operation from, t

REFERENCES:
patent: 5005318 (1991-04-01), Shafir
patent: 5040342 (1991-08-01), McGuire
patent: 5079876 (1992-01-01), Zumstein
patent: 5185965 (1993-02-01), Ozaki

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