JPH11236231A - Edge roll device for float glass production - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] (Corrected) [PROBLEMS] To provide an edge roll device for float glass production capable of improving the flatness of a glass ribbon. An edge roll is installed in a metal bath that forms a glass ribbon by floating molten glass on molten tin, and the edge roll is brought into contact with an edge of the glass ribbon and rotated to expand the width of the glass ribbon. In an edge roll device for float glass production that pulls a glass ribbon in a direction, a drive mechanism that transmits a rotational driving force from a motor 28 to the edge roll is a direct drive mechanism excluding a gear reduction mechanism, a friction drive mechanism, a belt drive mechanism, And a drive mechanism having no speed fluctuation, such as a planetary roller drive mechanism.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an edge roll apparatus for manufacturing float glass, and more particularly to an edge roll apparatus for manufacturing float glass for forcibly increasing the width of a glass ribbon formed by a metal bath.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An apparatus for manufacturing a glass sheet by a float method is:
It mainly consists of tank kilns, metal baths and layers. When molten glass is poured from a tank kiln into a metal bath, the glass spreads over the molten tin stored in the metal bath and reaches an equilibrium thickness. At this time, when the glass is pulled in the direction of the layer, the glass is stretched and advances as a band having a certain width in the downstream direction of the metal bath. The glass plate (glass ribbon) formed into a belt shape is cooled to such a degree that it does not deform even if it comes into contact with the rollers until it reaches the outlet of the metal bath, and is then lifted by a small amount at the outlet of the metal bath. To enter the layer. And
The glass ribbon is cooled while being conveyed by the roller conveyor. Thus, a glass ribbon having a predetermined thickness is manufactured.

[0003] By the way, thin glass such as liquid crystal glass cannot be manufactured simply by pulling a glass ribbon with a layer. Therefore, such a thin glass manufacturing apparatus includes an edge roll for reducing the thickness of the glass ribbon. Is provided. A plurality of the edge rolls are installed on both walls of the metal bath, and are installed obliquely with respect to the traveling direction of the glass ribbon. When these edge rolls are rotated in contact with the edge of the glass ribbon, the glass ribbon is pulled in the direction in which the width is increased, and its thickness is reduced. The edge roll is connected to an output shaft of a motor via a gear reduction mechanism and is rotated at a predetermined rotation speed.

[0004]

However, in the conventional glass sheet manufacturing apparatus, when the flatness of a glass ribbon manufactured only by pulling a layer and a glass ribbon manufactured by rotating an edge roll are compared, the latter is considered. There was a drawback that flatness was worse. The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to provide an edge roll device for manufacturing float glass that can improve the flatness of a glass ribbon.

[0005]

According to the present invention, in order to achieve the above object, an edge roll is installed in a metal bath for forming a glass ribbon by floating molten glass on molten tin, and the edge roll is attached to the glass ribbon. In a float glass manufacturing edge roll device that pulls the glass ribbon in a direction to increase the width of the glass ribbon by rotating by contacting with the edge, a drive mechanism that transmits a rotational driving force from a motor to the edge roll has a gear reduction mechanism. It is a drive mechanism such as a direct drive mechanism, a friction drive mechanism, a belt drive mechanism, and a planetary roller drive mechanism excluding the mechanism.

According to the invention of the present application, the deterioration of flatness when the edge roll is rotated is caused by the pulsation rotation phenomenon of the edge roll (a phenomenon in which the rotation speed periodically fluctuates) due to the characteristic speed fluctuation of the gear reduction mechanism. The cause of the problem was identified, and this was improved. Therefore, according to the present invention, as a drive mechanism for transmitting the rotational driving force from the motor to the edge roll, there is no speed fluctuation of a direct drive mechanism, a friction drive mechanism, a belt drive mechanism, a planetary roller drive mechanism, etc., excluding a gear reduction mechanism. A drive mechanism was adopted. Thereby, the present invention can improve the flatness of the glass ribbon.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A preferred embodiment of an edge roll apparatus for manufacturing a float glass according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of a glass sheet manufacturing apparatus to which an edge roll device for manufacturing float glass according to the present invention is applied. This glass sheet manufacturing apparatus includes a tank kiln 12 in which molten glass 10 is stored, a metal bath 16 in which molten tin 14 is stored, and a layer 18.

The molten glass 10 poured from the tank kiln 12 into the metal bath 16 spreads on the molten tin 14 and reaches a substantially equilibrium thickness. The molten glass 10 spread on the molten tin 14 is pulled in the direction of the layer 18 and slightly stretched, and advances as a band (glass ribbon 22) having a certain width in the downstream direction of the metal bath 16. Then, the glass ribbon 22 includes a plurality of edge rolls 2 shown in FIG.
4, 24,... While being spread in the width direction, and before reaching the outlet 17 of the metal bus 16, is cooled to a temperature at which it does not deform even if it comes into contact with the roller conveyor 20.

The glass ribbon 22 arriving at the outlet 17 of the metal bath 16 is lifted slightly near the outlet 17 and enters the layer 18. Then, the glass ribbon 22 is moved inside the layer 18 by a plurality of roller conveyors 20, 2 and
In the process of being conveyed at 0 ..., it is cooled, and finally cooled to room temperature. FIG. 3 is a structural diagram showing a first embodiment of an edge roll device for rotating the edge roll 24. As shown in FIG. The edge roll device shown in the figure is a device that employs a direct drive mechanism for directly driving the edge roll 24. That is, the rotation shaft 26 of the edge roll 24 is directly connected to the output shaft 30 of the servomotor 28. Thereby, the edge roll 2
Rotation 4 rotates at a constant speed because rotation driving force from the servomotor 28 is directly transmitted and does not generate pulsating rotation. Therefore, when the direct drive mechanism is employed, the flatness of the glass ribbon 22 can be improved.

FIG. 4 is a structural view showing a second embodiment of the edge roll device. The edge roll device shown in FIG. 1 is a device that employs a friction drive mechanism that drives the edge roll 24 by two friction rollers 32 and 34.
That is, a friction roller 32 is provided on the rotating shaft 26 of the edge roll 24, and the friction roller 32 is provided on the output shaft 30 of the servomotor 28.
Press against As a result, the rotational driving force from the servomotor 28 is transmitted to the edge roll 24 via the friction rollers 32 and 34, so that the edge roll 24 does not generate pulsating rotation. Therefore, even when the friction drive mechanism is adopted, the flatness of the glass ribbon 22 can be improved. In the friction drive mechanism, when slippage occurs between the friction roller 32 and the friction roller 34, pulsating rotation occurs in the edge roll 24. Therefore, the friction roller 32 and the friction roller 34 are pressed against each other with a pressure that does not cause slippage. ing.

FIG. 5 is a structural view showing a third embodiment of the edge roll device. The edge roll device shown in the figure is a device that employs a belt drive mechanism that drives the edge roll 24 with the timing belt 36. That is, a pulley 38 is provided on the rotating shaft 26 of the edge roll 24, and a pulley 40 is provided on the output shaft 30 of the servomotor 28.
An endless timing belt 36 is stretched over the zero.
As a result, the rotational driving force from the servomotor 28 is transmitted to the edge roll 24 via the timing belt 36, so that no pulsating rotation occurs in the edge roll 24. Therefore, even if the belt drive mechanism is adopted, the glass ribbon 2
2 can be improved in flatness. In the belt drive mechanism, the timing belt 36 and the pulley 38,
When a slip occurs between the timing belt and the timing belt, the pulsating rotation of the edge roll 24 occurs.

FIG. 6 is a structural view showing a fourth embodiment of the edge roll device. The edge roll device shown in the figure is a device that drives the edge roll 24 by a planetary roller drive mechanism 42. The planetary roller drive mechanism 42 includes a sun roller 44, three planetary rollers 46, and two fixing rings 4.
8 and 50. The sun roller 44 includes
As shown in FIG. 7, it is directly connected to the output shaft 30 of the servomotor 28 and is pressed against the large-diameter portion 46A of the planetary roller 46 to form a first deceleration portion. Also, the planetary roller 4
The small diameter portions 46B, 46B formed on both sides of 6 are pressed against the inner peripheral portions of the fixing rings 48, 50 to form a second reduction portion. The output shaft 4 of the three planetary rollers 46
7 is connected to a rotary shaft 26 for an edge roll shown by a two-dot chain line in FIG. Therefore, the edge roll is rotated by the revolving force of the three planetary rollers 46.

Since the planetary roller drive mechanism 42 constructed as described above has the friction drive mechanism shown in FIG. 4 with a speed reduction mechanism, no pulsating rotation of the edge roll 24 occurs similarly to the friction drive mechanism. Therefore, even if the planetary roller drive mechanism 42 is employed, the flatness of the glass ribbon 22 can be improved. In addition,
In the present embodiment, four examples of a drive mechanism having no speed fluctuation, that is, a direct drive mechanism, a friction drive mechanism, a belt drive mechanism, and a planetary roller drive mechanism have been described, but the present invention is not limited to this. That is, any drive mechanism that does not cause pulsating rotation of the edge roll 24 can be applied.

[0014]

As described above, according to the edge roll apparatus for manufacturing float glass according to the present invention, a direct drive mechanism excluding a gear reduction mechanism is used as a drive mechanism for transmitting a rotational driving force from a motor to the edge roll. Since a drive mechanism having no speed fluctuation, such as a friction drive mechanism, a belt drive mechanism, and a planetary roller drive mechanism, is employed, the flatness of the glass ribbon can be improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of a glass sheet manufacturing apparatus employing an edge roll device for manufacturing float glass according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a top view of a metal bath provided with a rim roll device.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of an edge roll device employing a direct drive mechanism.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view of an edge roll device employing a friction drive mechanism.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory view of an edge roll device employing a belt drive mechanism.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory view of a main part of an edge roll device employing a planetary roller drive mechanism.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of a main part of a planetary roller drive mechanism.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Molten glass 18 ... Layer 20 ... Roller conveyor 22 ... Glass ribbon 24 ... Edge roll 28 ... Servo motor 32, 34 ... Friction roller 36 ... Timing belt 42 ... Planetary roller drive mechanism 44 ... Sun roller 46 ... Planetary roller

Claims (1)

[Claims] An edge roll is set on a metal bath for forming a glass ribbon by floating molten glass on molten tin, and the edge roll is brought into contact with an edge of the glass ribbon and rotated to widen the width of the glass ribbon. In an edge roll device for float glass production that pulls a glass ribbon in a direction, a drive mechanism that transmits a rotational driving force from a motor to the edge roll is a direct drive mechanism excluding a gear reduction mechanism, a friction drive mechanism, a belt drive mechanism,
And a drive mechanism such as a planetary roller drive mechanism.