Provided herein are methods of heating and tempering glass using a microwave generator, such as a gyrotron. Also provided herein are systems comprising an microwave generator, such as a gyrotron, used to heat glass to a tempering temperature.

The present invention relates to a mold including a master mold having a first region master mold molding surface having a shape corresponding to a first region of a molded body, and a second region master mold molding surface having a shape corresponding to a second region of the molded body, and in which the master mold includes: an inner mold having the first region master mold molding surface; an outer mold having an accommodating concave portion capable of accommodating the inner mold therein and the second region master mold molding surface on at least a part of an outer edge of the accommodating concave portion; and a buffer material provided between the inner mold and a bottom surface of the accommodating concave portion, the buffer material being pressed and deformed with relative movement of the inner mold and the outer mold.

A small defect detection apparatus installed online in a glass sheet processing system includes a line scan camera, a background screen including contrasting elements arranged in a pre-defined pattern, an upstream conveyor and a downstream conveyor, wherein the upstream conveyor and downstream conveyor are positioned end-to-end, spaced apart by a selected size gap such that the camera may acquire multiple images of the background screen as the unsupported portion of the glass sheet is conveyed over the gap, and a computer programmed to execute logic for receiving the set of image data comprising multiple images of the background screen and identifying small defects in the glass from the data. The system may also include a glass sheet part identifier and a programmable control including logic for analyzing acquired image data and selecting an area of interest on the glass sheet for the analysis.

A small defect detection apparatus installed online in a glass sheet processing system includes a line scan camera, a background screen including contrasting elements arranged in a pre-defined pattern, an upstream conveyor and a downstream conveyor, wherein the upstream conveyor and downstream conveyor are positioned end-to-end, spaced apart by a selected size gap such that the camera may acquire multiple images of the background screen as the unsupported portion of the glass sheet is conveyed over the gap, and a computer programmed to execute logic for receiving the set of image data comprising multiple images of the background screen and identifying small defects in the glass from the data. The system may also include a glass sheet part identifier and a programmable control including logic for analyzing acquired image data and selecting an area of interest on the glass sheet for the analysis.

A glass sheet thermally strengthened such that at the first major surface is under compressive stress; the sheet having an a characteristic 2D autocorrelation matrix c(x,y) given by c(x,y)=F.sup.1(F(g).Math.F(g)) where F is a 2D Fourier transform and represents a complex conjugate operation and g is a high pass filtered data array given by g(x,y)=F.sup.1(F(f(1F(h)) where h is a spatial 2D low pass filter array and f is a square data array of Shear 0 and Shear 45 data, taken over an area away from any birefringence edge effects on the sheet, wherein an autocorrelation peak maximum width of the matrix c(x,y) at 40% of peak height, for the c(x,y) matrices from both the Shear 0 and Shear 45 data, is between 1 and 5 mm.

A glass sheet thermally strengthened such that at the first major surface is under compressive stress; the sheet having an a characteristic 2D autocorrelation matrix c(x,y) given by c(x,y)=F.sup.1(F(g).Math.F(g)) where F is a 2D Fourier transform and represents a complex conjugate operation and g is a high pass filtered data array given by g(x,y)=F.sup.1(F(f(1F(h)) where h is a spatial 2D low pass filter array and f is a square data array of Shear 0 and Shear 45 data, taken over an area away from any birefringence edge effects on the sheet, wherein an autocorrelation peak maximum width of the matrix c(x,y) at 40% of peak height, for the c(x,y) matrices from both the Shear 0 and Shear 45 data, is between 1 and 5 mm.

A strengthened glass or glass ceramic sheet has a roughness of greater than 0.05 nm Ra and less than 0.08 nm Ra over an area of 10 m10 m and has the property that, excluding areas within three sheet thicknesses of the outer edge surface of the sheet, the slope of a measured value of a thermally affected property of glass over distance along the first major surface of the sheet is higher bordering one or more lower-cooling-rate-effect-exhibiting areas on the first surface of the sheet than elsewhere on the first surface of the sheet, and at least one of said one or more areas has a shortest linear dimension, in a direction parallel to the first major surface, of less than 100000 m.

A strengthened glass or glass ceramic sheet has a roughness of greater than 0.05 nm Ra and less than 0.08 nm Ra over an area of 10 m10 m and has the property that, excluding areas within three sheet thicknesses of the outer edge surface of the sheet, the slope of a measured value of a thermally affected property of glass over distance along the first major surface of the sheet is higher bordering one or more lower-cooling-rate-effect-exhibiting areas on the first surface of the sheet than elsewhere on the first surface of the sheet, and at least one of said one or more areas has a shortest linear dimension, in a direction parallel to the first major surface, of less than 100000 m.

The present invention discloses a heating structure for an energy-saving hot bender, which comprises a heating chamber, a connecting rod, a drive mechanism and a hot bending mould moving passage, wherein the connecting rod is arranged on one side of the hot bending mould moving passage, the hot bending mould moving passage and the connecting rod pass through the heating chamber, the drive mechanism is connected with one side of the connecting rod and is capable of driving the connecting rod to rotate, the connecting rod is provided with a plurality of fastener groups, each of the fasteners group comprises two fasteners fixed at opposite positions, and the fasteners are sleeved on the connecting rod.

To provide a method for tempering glass to obtain tempered glass having high surface quality and a deep compression stress layer. The present invention relates to a method for tempering a glass plate comprising a preparation step of preparing a glass plate having a surface temperature of at most the strain point, an internal heating step of heating the internal temperature of the glass plate to be at least the annealing point, while maintaining the surface temperature of the glass plate within 10 minutes, or to be at most the strain point, and a cooling step of cooling the glass plate.