Method and apparatus for producing glass sheets, glass ribbon, glass sheet, and use thereof

The invention is based on the object of providing a particularly cost-effective method for producing ultra-thin glass sheets, which guarantees high edge strength of the glass sheets produced by such method by taking into account different annealing rates, in particular despite high annealing rates. To this end, a method is provided comprising the steps of: - hot forming a continuous glass ribbon (4) with a predefined glass thickness (d) in a range from 15 [mu]m to 2 mm from a molten glass (10); - annealing the glass ribbon (4) with an annealing rate that is chosen as a function of the predefined glass thickness (d); - generating a laser beam (20) by at least one ultra-short pulsed laser (16); - producing a focus area (22) of the laser beam (20) using beam-shaping optics such that the focus area (22) is longer than the glass thickness of the glass ribbon (4); - introducing predetermined breaking lines (12) consisting of filamentary defects (14) into the glass ribbon (4) using the laser beam (20) in such a mann