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US 6,141,917 AGranted
Roof panel construction and method of making same
OwnerGeorge B. Muellerinventor
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A roof panel construction includes a plurality of integral snow and ice gripping projections to help retain accumulated ice thereon and to guide the drainage of melted snow and ice therefrom during snow and ice melting ambient conditions. The projections are each convex in configuration to grip the frozen snow and ice and yet permit efficient drainage of the melted snow and ice thereover and therearound.
Claims21
A roof panel construction, comprising:
- a first plurality of alternating like elongated roof panels each having a group of intgral low profile snow and ice gripping smoothly contoured projections for gripping the ice base portion of the snow and ice accumulation to help prevent it from becoming dislodged therefrom and for permitting melting snow and ice to break up and to drain off remaining moisture, said group of projections being arranged in a pair of tight clusters longitudinally disposed at substantially regular intervals for providing an aesthetically pleasing appearance and for gripping spaced apart portions of slabs of the snow and ice accumulations, the projections within each cluster being arranged in staggered columns of said projections, each projection being cup shaped and having an upstanding convex, outwardly bulbous arresting face portion integrally connected to an angularly sloping back portion, said arresting face portion including an upright intermediate portion interconnecting a smoothly rounded top portion and a smoothly rounded bottom portion, and each cluster having a longitudinal dimension substantially smaller than the spacing between longitudinally adjacent clusters;
- a second plurality of alternating like adjacent elongated roof panels similar to the first plurality each having a group of integral low profile snow and ice gripping smoothly contoured projections for gripping an ice base portion of the snow and ice accumulation to help prevent it from becoming dislodged therefrom and for permitting melting snow and ice to break up and to drain off remaining moisture, said group of projections being arranged in a pair of longitudinally spaced apart clusters for providing an aesthetically pleasing appearance and for gripping spaced apart portions of slabs of the snow and ice accumulations, the projections of each of the last-mentioned cluster being arranged in staggered columns of said projections, and the first-mentioned roof panels and the adjacent roof panels being disposed in an alternating pattern to position said clusters in staggered rows;
- and
- the clusters of projections of the first roof panels being staggered longitudinally to those of the second roof panels to facilitate gripping of snow and ice accumulations and to facilitate the breaking up of accummulations as they become dislodged.
1 more element
An elongated roof panel comprising:
- a base sheet;
- and
- a plurality of outwardly extending projections integrally formed in staggered columns in said base sheet into tight clusters longitudinally disposed at substantially regular periodic intervals along the panel for providing an aesthetically pleasing pattern for both gripping snow and ice accumulations and breaking up and draining them when they become dislodged, each cluster having a longitudinal dimension substantially smaller than the longitudinal spacing between adjacent clusters;
- each projection being cup shaped and having a snow and ice upstanding convex, outwardly bulbous arresting face portion integrally connected to an angularly sloping back portion, said arresting face portion including an upright intermediate portion interconnecting a smoothly rounded top portion and a smoothly rounded bottom portion for facilitating gripping the snow and ice accumulations and efficiently draining melted snow and ice.
1 more element
A method of making a roof, comprising:
- forming integral, outwardly smoothly extending projections in elongated roof panels, each projection having its arresting face portion facing one of the ends of its panel, said arresting faces each having a convex shaped portion;
- arranging the projections in each panel in tight clusters in a longitudinally generally periodically spaced apart manner;
- arranging the projections within each cluster in staggered columns of said projections;
- and
- mounting the roof panels in place in a side by side manner to form the roof with clusters of laterally adjacent panels in staggered rows to facilitate snow and ice gripping and to facilitate drainage of melting snow and ice therefrom.
2 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.