Embodiments of an article comprising a cold-formed glass substrate in a curved shape, a plurality of separate mechanical retainers, and a frame are disclosed. The cold-formed glass substrate has a first major surface, and a second major surface opposing the first major surface. In one more embodiments, the plurality of separate mechanical retainers are attached to the second major surface of the cold-formed glass substrate. The mechanical retainers may be attached to the frame to define a position for each of the plurality of mechanical retainers, such that the mechanical retainers define the curved shape. Embodiments of processes to form such articles are also provided. Such processes can include attaching a plurality of separate mechanical retainers to a flexible glass substrate such that the glass substrate maintains its flexibility, and attaching the mechanical retainers to a frame, such that the mechanical retainers attached to the frame define a cold-formed curved shape for the flexible glass substrate.

A non-contact shaping device includes a first fixture including a fixing section structured to alternately blow out and suck in gas. The fixing section may fix, through suction of gas, a glass plate thereon. An optic heat source processing device is selectively set above predetermined portions of the glass plate to heat, in a non-contact manner, and thus soften, in a temperature-controlled manner, the portions for curving and suspending downward along an edge of the fixing section. The curved glass plate is then lifted up through blowing gas from the first fixture. The second fixture selectively covers the curved glass plate and blow gas therefrom to flow, in collaborative combination with the gas blown from the first fixture, around surfaces of the curved glass plate for cooling and fixing a shape of the curved glass plate in a non-contact manner to form a three-dimensional curve-surfaced glass product.

The present invention discloses a vehicle glazing having a sharply curved portion and the method for bending such glazing The sharply curved portion of the glass may extend along the surface of the glass. The sharply curved portion is obtained by locally heating by means of a laser source, heating the portion of the glass to a temperature sufficiently high enough to allow said portion of glass to bend. In preferred embodiments, the sharply curved portion comprises a first bent portion described by a first radius and a second bent portion described by a second radius, wherein the point where the radiuses of the first and second bent portions change their orientation generate an inflection point. The radius of curvature of the first and second bent portions is of less than 150 mm.

A glass processing may include a heating station to heat glass sheets, and a bending station disposed downstream of the heating station to bend the heated glass sheets. The bending station may include first and second independent movement mechanisms configured to independently move first and second molds when the glass processing system is operated in a first mode, and to cooperate to move a third mold when the glass processing system is operated in a second mode. The system further includes a control system to control the movement mechanisms so that they operate independently when the glass processing system is operated in the first mode, and so that they operate simultaneously when the glass processing system is operated in the second mode.

A laminated includes two bent glass substrates, a polymer interlayer between the glass substrates, and a notch or orifice cut in an entire thickness of the glazing. The glazing includes a border of compressive edge stresses obtained by general controlled cooling of the substrates in a paired state so that compressive stresses are generated at the border, and a local compression zone, different from the border, and obtained by local controlled cooling of a local area of a main surface of the glazing so that compressive stresses are generated in theid local compression zone. The notch or orifice is located in the local compression zone and made in the substrates in a paired state after forming the local compression zone so that cut contours of the substrates in the notch or orifice have a perfect superposition. The compressive edge stresses of the cut contours are greater than 4 MPa.

A device and a process for manufacturing a bent individual glass sheet including a peripheral compression belt, wherein the process includes the heating thereof to its bending temperature in a furnace, the individual bending thereof, and the general cooling thereof. One zone of the sheet at least partially inside the peripheral compression belt, referred to as locally cooled zone, undergoes, after the heating of the sheet, a local cooling faster than the general cooling, when the sheet is at a temperature of at least 530 C. The cutting of the sheet on the locally cooled zone creates edges having edge compressive stresses.

A method for repairing surface smoothness of heat-bent glass includes: providing a fluid which is transparent and solid at room temperature on an inner side of a heat-bent clear glass used for manufacturing a screen protector of an electronic device; by utilizing a mold having a pattern corresponding to the surface smoothness of a screen of the electronic device, pressing the inner side of the heat-bent clear glass and at the same time processing the fluid on the inner side of the heat-bent clear glass through a molding process so that the fluid fill a curved and uneven surface of the inner side of the heat-bent clear glass; and curing the fluid so that the inner surface of the heat-bent clear glass has a curvature and smoothness that match the curvature and smoothness of the screen of the electronic device.

A process and system for forming a curved glass article from a sheet of glass material is provided. The process and system includes supporting a glass sheet on a shaping frame and then heating the sheet of glass material while supported by the shaping frame such that the central region of the sheet of glass material deforms into an open central cavity of the bending frame. The process and/or system are configured such that an aspect of the heating experienced by an outer region of the sheet of glass material is less than an aspect of the heating experienced by the central region of the sheet of glass material. The aspect of heating may be the average temperature, the maximum temperature and/or the heating rate, which Applicant believes may reduce certain defects during the shaping operation.

Embodiments of this disclosure pertain to a vehicle interior system comprising a base having a base surface; and a glass article coupled to the surface, wherein the glass article comprises a first portion comprising a first elastically deformed surface forming a first concave shape with a first radius of curvature from about 20 mm to about 2000 mm, and a second elastically deformed surface directly opposite the first elastically deformed surface that forms a second convex shape, wherein the second elastically deformed surface has a surface compressive stress that is less than a compressive stress at the first elastically deformed surface, and a second portion adjacent the first portion, wherein the second portion is substantially planar portion or curved.

The present invention relates to a blow molding device including: a heating unit which is configured to heat a molding material; and molds between which the molding material is loaded and molded, in which the heating unit includes: an infrared lamp configured to emit infrared rays, a reflective mirror configured to concentrate the infrared rays emitted from the infrared lamp; and a light transmitting body configured to transmit the infrared rays concentrated by the reflective mirror to the molding material, and in which the molds mold the molding material by using gas pressures applied to surfaces of the molding material heated to a predetermined temperature by the infrared rays transmitted from the light transmitting body.