US-12618241-B2 - Single piece gutter guard with truss

Abstract

A gutter guard device is described comprising a bridge member composed of a decking material having a plurality of orifices, and having a roof side and an opposing gutter lip side, at least one truss spanning a top surface of the bridge member from a proximal end of the bridge member's roof side to a proximal end of the bridge member's gutter lip side, a roof attachment member configured to attach to the roof side of the bridge member, and a gutter attachment member configured to attach to the gutter lip side of the bridge member, wherein the roof attachment member, the bridge member and the gutter attachment member are a single piece of material and the device is self-supporting.

Inventors

• Robert Lenney

Assignees

• GUTTERGLOVE, INC.

Dates

Publication Date

20260505

Application Date

20240529

Claims (20)

1. 1 . A gutter guard device comprising: a bridge member composed of a non-mesh decking material, having a roof side end and an opposing gutter lip side end; at least one continuous main fold in the bridge member to form at least one truss spanning a top surface of the bridge member; a secondary fold of a terminal end of the at least one continuous main fold, wherein the secondary fold reduces a height of a portion of the at least one continuous main fold proximal to at least one of the roof side end and the opposing gutter lip side end of the bridge member; a roof attachment member formed from the roof side end of the bridge member; and a gutter attachment member formed from the gutter lip side end of the bridge member, wherein the roof attachment member, the bridge member and the gutter attachment member are a single piece of material and the gutter guard device is self-supporting.
2. 2 . The gutter guard device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one truss is a plurality of trusses.
3. 3 . The gutter guard device of claim 1 , wherein a structure of the at least one truss has a first side joined to an opposing second side via a connecting top side.
4. 4 . The gutter guard device of claim 3 , wherein the first and second sides are disposed perpendicular to a plane of the bridge member.
5. 5 . The gutter guard device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one truss is disposed at a non-perpendicular angle from a plane of the bridge member.
6. 6 . The gutter guard device of claim 2 , wherein the plurality of trusses are equidistant from each other.
7. 7 . The gutter guard device of claim 2 , wherein a truss of the plurality of trusses spans the bridge member in a non-orthogonal orientation.
8. 8 . The gutter guard device of claim 2 , wherein a truss of the plurality of trusses is bifurcated.
9. 9 . The gutter guard device of claim 1 , wherein a length of the at least one truss has a span is less than a length between the roof side end and the opposing gutter lip side end.
10. 10 . The gutter guard device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one truss is made from a separate material from the bridge member.
11. 11 . The gutter guard device of claim 1 , wherein the at least one truss has a cross-sectional profile shape of an upside down “U”.
12. 12 . The gutter guard device of claim 1 , further comprising at least one barricade disposed in the bridge member.
13. 13 . The gutter guard device of claim 12 , wherein the at least one barricade has a shape of at least one of a number, circle, arrow, crescent, bump, dimple, and polygon.
14. 14 . The gutter guard device of claim 12 , wherein the at least one barricade is a plurality of barricades.
15. 15 . The gutter guard device of claim 12 , wherein the at least one barricade is not made from the non-mesh decking material.
16. 16 . The gutter guard device of claim 1 , wherein a roof side first section of the bridge member has a first elevation and a gutter side second section of the bridge member has a second elevation, the roof side first section and the gutter side second section being joined by a third section, to form a non-linear bridge member profile, wherein a profile of the at least one truss is matched to the non-linear profile of the bridge member.
17. 17 . The gutter guard device of claim 16 , wherein the first and section elevations are the same and the third section contains an apex, to form a peak.
18. 18 . The gutter guard device of claim 16 , wherein the first and section elevations are the same and the third section contains an inverted apex, to form a trough.
19. 19 . The gutter guard device of claim 1 , wherein the roof attachment member is flexible, allowing it to be deformed into different attachment angles.
20. 20 . The gutter guard device of claim 1 , wherein a profile of the at least one truss is at least one of a T and an inverted L.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This nonprovisional application claims the benefit and priority of U.S. non-Provisional application Ser. No. 16/864,089, titled “SINGLE PIECE GUTTER GUARD WITH TRUSS” filed Apr. 30, 2020; Provisional Application No. 62/841,427 titled “One-piece Truss Gutter Bridge Gutter Guard,” filed on May 1, 2018; U.S. Provisional Application No. 62/841,438 titled “One-piece Truss Gutter Bridge with Irregular Grooves Gutter Guard,” filed on May 1, 2019; U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/841,387, filed on May 1, 2019, titled “Bifurcated Arched Gutter Bridge Gutter Guard”; and U.S. Non-provisional patent application Ser. No. 16/862,537, filed on Apr. 29, 2020, titled “Gutter Guard with Grooves;” wherein the above-identified applications are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties. BACKGROUND Field This invention relates to gutter guards and protecting gutters from having debris entering the gutter while still allowing water to flow into the gutter. Description of Related Art Rain gutters are generally attached to buildings or structures that have a pitched roof. The gutters are designed to collect and divert rainwater that runs off the roof. The gutter channels the rainwater (water) to downspouts that are connected to the bottom of the gutter at various locations. The downspouts divert the water to the ground surface or underground drainage system and away from the building. Gutters have a large opening, which runs parallel to the roofline, to collect water. A drawback of this large opening is that debris, such as leaves, pine needles and the like can readily enter the opening and eventually clog the gutter. Once the rain gutter fills up with debris, rainwater can spill over the top and on to the ground, which compromises he effectiveness of the gutter, and causes water damage to the home and erode surrounding landscapes. A primary solution to obstruct debris from entering a gutter opening is the use of debris preclusion devices, most commonly known in the public as gutter guards. Gutter guards are also generically referred to as gutter covers, eavestrough guards, leaf guards or, alternatively via the more technical terms gutter protection systems, debris obstruction device (DOD), debris preclusion devices (DPD) or gutter bridge, etc. Gutter guards/DOD types abound in the marketplace and the industry is constantly innovating to find more efficient configurations that not only keep debris, such as leaves and pine needles out of the gutter, but also keep out even smaller particles like tiny roof sand grit. Concomitant with these innovations are the challenges of achieving self-supporting systems that are simple (e.g., low cost, single piece, easy to fabricate, etc.) as well as systems designed to maintain effectiveness (e.g., durable, easy-to-install, minimal maintenance, etc.) in heavy weather conditions. In view of the above, various systems and methods are elucidated in the following description and figures, that provide innovative solutions to one or more deficiencies of the art. SUMMARY The following presents a simplified summary in order to provide a basic understanding of some aspects of the claimed subject matter. This summary is not an extensive overview and is not intended to identify key/critical elements or to delineate the scope of the claimed subject matter. Its purpose is to present some concepts in a simplified form as a prelude to the more detailed description that is presented later. As one example, one or more embodiments of the exemplary gutter debris obstruction devices, (i.e. gutter guard) utilizes its own truss support. For keeping costs down to manufacture and for improved performance, one or more embodiments of the exemplary gutter guard devices can utilize one piece of formed perforated sheet material. The perforated sheet material can be entirely perforated or perforated in limited sections. Further, one or more embodiments of the exemplary gutter guard devices do not require a “separate” framed support under it. Still further, one or more embodiments of the exemplary gutter guard devices do not require attachment brackets to attach the device to a gutter or a building. For example, in one aspect of an embodiment, a gutter guard device is provided, comprising: a bridge member composed of a decking material having a plurality of orifices, and having a roof side and an opposing gutter lip side; at least one truss spanning a top surface of the bridge member from a proximal end of the bridge member's roof side to a proximal end of the bridge member's gutter lip side; a roof attachment member configured to attach to the roof side of the bridge member; and a gutter attachment member configured to attach to the gutter lip side of the bridge member, wherein the roof attachment member, the bridge member and the gutter attachment member are a single piece of material and the device is self-supporting. In another aspect of an embodiment, the above i