As is well known, in a process of manufacturing glass sheet products to be used for flat panel displays such as a liquid crystal display, a plasma display, and an electroluminescence display, a small-area glass sheet is cut out of a large-area glass sheet, and an edge portion extending along each side of the glass sheet is trimmed off. As a method therefor, a method of cleaving a glass sheet is taken as an example.
As one method of cleaving a glass sheet, there is publicly known a cleaving method that involves cutting as disclosed in JP 07-25633 A. In this method, a scribe is formed in the glass sheet, and then a cutting member is used to press a region on the periphery of the scribe. Thus, a bending moment is applied to the region in the vicinity of the scribe, and a tensile stress generated in the glass sheet due to the bending moment is utilized to propagate a median crack, which is derived from the scribe, in a direction from a scribe surface side of the glass sheet (surface in which the scribe is formed) to another surface side thereof. In this manner, the glass sheet is cleaved.
USPTO Backgrounds
USPTO Backgrounds