Supporting a glass sheet for press bending

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention provides a non-yielding device or stop member for limiting the precise amount of displacement of the glass engaging elements from the positions they occupy when their associated pairs of tongs are freely suspended.
The precise control of the tong movement when the press bending molds engage and shape the heated glass eliminates the tendency of the tong to return to its freely suspended position while the press bending molds engage the heated glass sheet and would induce a kink in the glass portion that faces the aligned notched portions of the press bending molds in the absence of said stop member.
An improved stop member of the present invention is located behind each notched portion of a conventional press bending mold into which a freely suspended tong would pivot when the press bending molds engage the opposite major surfaces of the heat softened glass sheet to impress their shape thereon.
The position of each stop member relative to the shaping surface of its associated mold is adjustable.
However, once the position of each individual stop member is adjusted, the stop member remains supported rigidly in its adjusted position to limit the motion of the glass engaging elements of the glass sheet supporting tongs during shaping of the glass sheet so that kinking of the glass in the tong gripped portion is substantially eliminated.
In a preferred embodiment of the invention, the stop element for one glass engaging element that engages one major surface of the glass is rigid and a second stop member for the opposite glass engaging element that engages the opposite major surface of the glass sheet is resiliently mounted with respect to the shaping surface of the other press bending mold.
The positioning of the resiliently mounted stop member is limited so that sufficient resilience remains to maintain the opposing stop members separated from one another a distance equal to the thickness of the glass sheet plus the dimensions of the glass engaging elements of the pair of tongs in the direction of the glass thickness