Glass Sheet Bending Process

At fraunhofer iwm glass bending processes have been developed for forming sheet glass especially with application of local heating.

Glass sheet bending process.

However glass rods and tubing is easy to bend and frequently done by artists and people working in laboratories. A process for bending a glass sheet or a pair of glass sheets to a relatively sharp angle which comprises forming an electrically conducting path on the sheet along a line about which it is desired to bend the sheet and passing an electric current through the path to heat the sheet adjacent the path to a temperature above the bending point of the glass. Non isothermal processing of the glass with hot and cold areas within the glass sheet enables. Bending a glass pane or bottle to a precise shape is not feasible without professional equipment.

All you need is a flame. The invention also relates to a process for manufacturing a bent glazing comprising a glass sheet comprising a peripheral compression belt and an orifice at least partially inside the peripheral compression belt said orifice having an edge compressive stress of at least 4 mpa and preferably of at least 8 mpa comprising the preparation of the glass sheet by the process according to the invention comprising the local cooling followed by the cutting of the orifice in the locally cooled zone. Using the new laser based glass bending process it is possible to achieve precisely defined and extremely small bend radii so that even laminated safety glass can be bent around a corner.