This application claims priority of Taiwanese publication No. 094119486, filed on Jun. 13, 2005.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a disposable syringe, more particularly to a disposable syringe with a guiding sleeve for facilitating retraction of a needle into a plunger.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional syringes, especially those with a sharp needle, have to be disposed of safely after injection. Therefore, many syringes are provided with a retractable needle that can be retracted into a plunger when the plunger reaches the end of its stroke. In a co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/918,020, entitled “Disposable Syringe with a Retractable Needle,” filed by the applicants, there is disclosed a disposable syringe including a barrel which has a retaining region to retain a needle seat for carrying a needle cannula to form a needle assembly, and a friction diminishing region that extends forwardly from the retaining region and that terminates at a shoulder abutment. A plunger is movable in the barrel toward the needle seat for injection. A coupling member frictionally engages the plunger, and has an anchored portion to engage the needle seat. When the needle seat is moved past the friction diminishing region to abut against the shoulder abutment, a subsequent pushing force applied to the plunger results in release of the coupling member from the plunger, thereby enabling the coupling member and the needle assembly to be retracted into the plunger by means of a biasing member. By virtue of the friction diminishing region, the retraction of the needle assembly can be stabilized.
It is desirable to improve the retraction of the syringe when the syringe is adapted for injecting medication of a small volume, i.e., the syringe has a very small inner diameter.
The object of the present invention is to provide a disposable syringe which permits steady retraction of a plunger and which ensures successful retraction of a needle assembly even if the syringe is made to have a very small inner diameter.
According to this invention, the disposable syringe includes a needle assembly having a needle seat which includes a front hub portion to fix a needle cannula, a gripped portion, and a rear anchoring portion. A barrel has an inner surrounding barrel surface surrounding an axis in a longitudinal direction to define a passage therein, and including a larger-diameter portion and a smaller-diameter portion. A tubular grip member has an inner surrounding grip surface retainingly sleeved on the gripped portion of the needle seat, and an outer surrounding retained surface that, in a position of use, is engaged with a retaining area of the larger-diameter portion by virtue of a first frictional force generated therebetween.
A tubular plunger is movable in the passage along the larger-diameter portion, and has a front opened end wall which is movable to abut against the tubular grip member, a rear opened end wall which extends outwardly of a rearward opening of the plunger so as to be manually operable, and an intermediate surrounding wall which defines an accommodation chamber. A coupling member has a retained shank which is disposed in the accommodation chamber to be in frictional engagement with the intermediate surrounding wall by virtue of a second frictional force, and an anchored portion which extends from the retained shank forwardly and which is disposed outwardly of the front opened end wall in the position of use so as to be engageable with the rear anchoring portion of the needle seat when the coupling member is moved forwardly. When the grip member is pushed forward by virtue of forward movement of the plunger against the first frictional force, the anchored portion of the coupling member is brought to rub against the rear anchoring portion which remains unmoved in place, so as to be engaged with the rear anchoring portion by a holding force. Once the plunger is moved further forward so as to cause movement of the plunger relative to the coupling member against the second frictional force, the retained shank is released from the intermediate surrounding wall to thereby permit the anchored portion to be moved with the rear anchoring portion to a retracted position where the anchored portion is disposed closer to a rear opened end wall of the plunger and where the needle assembly can be received in the accommodation chamber. A biasing member, such as a coiled spring, is disposed to bias the anchored portion of the coupling member towards the retracted position.
A guiding sleeve is sleeved on the needle seat to permit movement of the needle seat relative thereto, and includes a front resisted end which is disposed to be prevented from moving forward, and an intermediate separating portion which extends rearwardly from the front resisted end to terminate at a rear splitting end. The rear splitting end is interposed between the inner surrounding grip surface of the grip member and the gripped portion of the needle seat. Thus, when the plunger is moved forwards, the intermediate separating portion is forced to extend between the gripped portion and the inner surrounding grip surface so as to decrease the frictional force therebetween.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention, with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIGS. 3 to 5 are fragmentary sectional views of the first preferred embodiment, showing a coupling member in three different states;
Before the present invention is described in greater detail, it should be noted that same reference numerals have been used to denote like elements throughout the specification.
Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, the first preferred embodiment of a disposable syringe according to the present invention is shown to comprise a needle assembly 2, a barrel 1, a tubular grip member 3, a tubular plunger 4, a coupling member 51, a guiding sleeve 21, and a biasing member 52.
The needle assembly 2 includes a needle cannula 20, a tubular needle seat 22, and a cannula retaining tube 23. The needle seat 22 is in the form of a hard, thin-wall tube, such as a tube of rigid metal, carbon fiber or engineering plastic tube, which includes a front hub portion 221 that is disposed to fix a rear flat-ended segment 201 of the needle cannula 20 therein, a gripped portion 222 which extends from the front hub portion 221 in a longitudinal direction, and a rear anchoring portion 223 which is disposed opposite to the front hub portion 221 in the longitudinal direction. The cannula retaining tube 23 is fitted into the front hub portion 221, and has a tube chamber to receive the needle cannula 20 therein and to secure the flat-ended segment 201 of the needle cannula 20 by means of an adhesive material so as to fix the needle cannula 20 to the needle seat 22.
The barrel 1 has an inner surrounding barrel surface 13 which surrounds an axis (X) in the longitudinal direction, and which defines a passage 10 therein. The passage 10 has rearward and forward openings 132,131 which are disposed opposite to each other in the longitudinal direction. The inner surrounding barrel surface 13 includes a larger-diameter portion 11 and a smaller-diameter portion 12 disposed proximate to the rearward and forward openings 132,131, respectively, and a tapered portion 14 which converges from the larger-diameter portion 11 to the smaller-diameter portion 12.
The larger-diameter portion 11 has a retaining area 16 which is in the form of an annular protrusion and which is spaced apart from the smaller-diameter portion 12 in the longitudinal direction. The smaller-diameter portion 12 has a first shoulder abutment 124, a retaining region 121 which is spaced apart from the first shoulder abutment 124 and which is configured to retain the front hub portion 221 of the needle seat 22 thereat when the needle seat 22 is in a position of use, a friction diminishing region 122 which is disposed between the first shoulder abutment 124 and the retaining region 121, and a second shoulder abutment 125 which is disposed between the retaining region 121 and the retaining area 16. The passage 10 at the friction diminishing region 122 has a diameter larger than that of the passage 10 at the retaining region 121. The tapered portion 14 has a plurality of ribs 15 which are angularly displaced from one another about the axis (X) and which have rearwardly facing ends 151.
The grip member 3 includes a small front segment 35 which has an inner surrounding grip surface 31 that is retainingly sleeved on the gripped portion 222 of the tubular needle seat 22, and a large rear segment 36 which is opposite to the small front segment 35 along the axis (X) and which has an outer surrounding retained surface 32 that, in the position of use, is engaged with the retaining area 16 by virtue of a first frictional force generated therebetween, and an inner surrounding surface 33 opposite to the outer surrounding retained surface 32 radially.
The plunger 4 is disposed to be movable in the passage 10 along the larger-diameter portion 11, and has a front opened end wall 421 which is movable to abut against the grip member 3, a rear opened end wall 422 which is disposed opposite to the front opened end wall 421 and which extends outwardly of the rearward opening 132 so as to be manually operable, and an intermediate surrounding wall 42 which is interposed between the front and rear opened end walls 421,422 and which defines an accommodation chamber 41. The intermediate surrounding wall 42 has a smaller front segment 423 and a larger rear segment 424 so as to form a shoulder 426 therebetween. An enlarged terminal segment 425 is disposed between the larger rear segment 424 and the rear opened end wall 422. An end cap 44 is disposed to cover the rear opened end wall 422. A seal ring 43, which is made of a deformable material, is sleeved retainingly on an outer peripheral surface of the smaller front segment 423 so as to be slidable on and to be in fluid-tight frictional engagement with both the larger-diameter portion 11 of the inner surrounding barrel surface 13 and the plunger 4.
The coupling member 51 has a retained shank 512 which extends along the axis (X) and which is disposed in the accommodation chamber 41 to be in frictional engagement with the intermediate surrounding wall 42 by virtue of a second frictional force, and an anchored portion 511 which extends from the retained shank 512 forwardly and which is disposed outwardly of the seal ring 43 in the position of use so as to be engageable with the rear anchoring portion 223 of the needle seat 22 when the coupling member 51 is moved forwardly towards the forward opening 131.
The guiding sleeve 21 is shorter than the needle seat 22, is made from a rigid material, such as a rigid metal, carbon fiber or engineering plastic material, and is sleeved on the needle seat 22 to permit movement of the needle seat 22 relative thereto. The guiding sleeve 21 includes a front resisted end 211 which is disposed to abut against the second shoulder abutment 125 to be prevented from moving towards the forward opening 131, and an intermediate separating portion 213 which extends rearwardly from the front resisted end 211, and which terminates at a rear splitting end 212. The rear splitting end 212 is interposed between the inner surrounding grip surface 31 and the gripped portion 222. Preferably, a retaining protrusion 34 integrally formed with the small front segment 35 of the grip member 3 is provided to retain the rear splitting end 212.
The biasing member 52 is a coiled spring surrounding the retained shank 512 of the coupling member 51, and has a front spring end 522 which abuts against the shoulder 426, and a rear spring end 521 which is retained on a rear end of the retained shank 512 such that the coiled spring is compressed in the position of use.
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As illustrated, during retraction of the needle assembly 2, the guiding sleeve 21 is extended between the gripped portion 222 of the needle seat 22 and the inner surrounding grip surface 31 of the grip member 3 so as to decrease the frictional force therebetween, and further extends in the seal ring 43 and the front opened end wall 421 of the plunger 4 to thereby force the intermediate surrounding wall 42 to yield radially and outwardly so as to further decrease the second frictional force. Besides, the friction diminishing region 122 provides a space of the triggering action for retraction of the needle assembly 2 so that the friction between the needle seat 22 and the smaller-diameter portion 12 can be reduced. Therefore, successful and smooth retraction of the needle assembly 2 can be ensured.
In other words, with such a construction, the needle seat 22 can be configured to have a relatively small diameter, and thus the needle cannula 20 can be formed to have a relatively small diameter so as to be adapted for injecting medication of a very small volume, such as 1 ml. Likewise, the barrel 1 can be configured to have a smaller diameter with a relatively compensatory elongation of the length of the barrel 1 for a unit medication volume. Thus, the spacing of graduations (not shown) marked on the barrel 1 of extremely small volume, such as 0.01 cc., can be relatively large to facilitate accurate reading of the volume of medication in an injection course. Furthermore, the cannula retaining tube 23 can be used as a medium to attach the needle cannula 20 to the needle seat 22 so that the assembly of the needle cannula 20 and the needle seat 22 is convenient to conduct, and the connection between the needle cannula 20 and the needle seat 22 is firm and steady.
It is noted that a rib 427 is disposed on the enlarged terminal segment 425, and is configured to abut against a rear end of the larger-diameter portion 11, as shown in
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While the present invention has been described in connection with what is considered the most practical and preferred embodiments, it is understood that this invention is not limited to the disclosed embodiments but is intended to cover various arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the broadest interpretations and equivalent arrangements.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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094119486 | Jun 2005 | TW | national |