Importance

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Abstract

A quench station (14) including apparatus for quenching a heated glass sheet G conveyed by rolls (22) of a roller conveyor (20) is disclosed as including upper and lower sets of blastheads (32) having outlets (34) that are positioned closer to the conveyed glass sheet than the conveyor roll radius R and which are oriented and sized to provide highly efficient quenching such as during heat strengthening or tempering. These blasthead outlets (34) are preferably round and the blastheads (32) are vertically aligned with each other to provide aligned locations (36) of impingement with the oppositely facing surfaces of the glass sheet. In one embodiment, a set of upper roll mimics (38) located above the conveyor rolls (22) in a vertically aligned relationship provide symmetry that results in uniform quenching of both the upper and lower glass sheet surfaces. In another embodiment, the upper set of blastheads (32') each have a greater dimension along the direction of conveyance than the lower set of blastheads (32') to balance the average gas pressures at the upper and lower glass sheet surfaces.

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First Claim