Parabolic-reflector apparatus comprising a plurality of triangular reflecting members, and a system and method of bending substantially triangular plane sections of glass

摘要

The geometric pattern for the support framework 11 is obtained by projecting a subdivided icosahedron onto a parabolic surface. The resulting framework has forty primary planar triangular faces or sections, each of which are, in the embodiment shown, subdivided equally into 4 secondary planar triangular sections. At the dead center of the framework pattern is the outline of a pentagon 37, formed of five equal-size triangular sections. The framework terminates in a rim 17 which lies completely in a single plane. Triangular reflecting members, which comprise the reflecting surface portion of the apparatus, are supported interiorly of the framework by standoff elements. Intermediate along each edge of the reflecting members is a tensioning element which bends the reflecting member so that the intermediate edge points, as well as the vertices of each reflecting member, lie on the surface of an imaginary paraboloid, the reflecting members thus approximating a parabolic curve.