Patent ID: 7603825

Claim:
An elongate retaining element for building sheets, comprising, as seen in cross section perpendicular to the retaining element's direction of elongation: a head part for engaging at least one said building sheets when the free ends of two adjacent building sheets are flanged one sheet on top of the other sheet along the head part, a base part for mounting the elongate retaining element on a support structure, a connecting flange extending upwardly from said base part and joining said head part to said base part, wherein said elongate retaining element head part, base part and connecting flange comprise a plastic material, one or more supporting ribs extending between the base part and the connecting flange, and at least one reinforcement sheet having a reinforcement base part and extending along a longitudinal axis of the reinforcement sheet from the connecting flange into at least the head part, the base part having mounting holes extending through the plastic material of the base part, and the reinforcement base part having holes extending through the reinforcement sheet, wherein one or more of the base part mounting holes are aligned with respective said reinforcement base part holes for mounting the elongate retaining element on the support structure, wherein, as seen in cross section, in the head part one free end of the reinforcement sheet is bent into a section with an acute angle of less than 90° with the reinforcement sheet longitudinal axis, wherein the head of the retaining element has a substantially triangular cross-section which is substantially symmetrical with the central longitudinal axis of the connecting flange, wherein the at least one reinforcement sheet comprises at least two bent sheets, in the head part the free end of each bent sheet section directing in opposing directions.