Connectors having features to facilitate or hamper tightening and/or loosening
AssigneeICU Medical, Inc.
InventorsJohn Seifert, Mark Lindsay, Jeffrey Woods
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A connector includes gripping features. The gripping features can comprise two surfaces that generally oppose each another. Each surface can be configured to facilitate or hamper rotation of the connector in a direction. Some embodiments can hamper tightening and facilitate loosening of the connector. Other embodiments can facilitate tightening and hamper loosening. Still other embodiments can hamper both tightening and loosening. Yet other embodiments can facilitate both tightening and loosening.
Claims27
A medical connector for rotational interaction with a device, the medical connector comprising:
- a body comprising a first cavity near a proximal end of the body, and a second cavity near a distal end of the body, the first and second cavities forming a passageway through at least a portion of a length of the body;
- a central axis extending through the body;
- and
- a gripping feature extending from at least a portion of the body, the gripping feature extending primarily radially near the central axis, and primarily circumferentially near the gripping feature's radially distant end;
- wherein the gripping feature extends asymmetrically about any plane containing the central axis.
A rotatable medical connector comprising:
- a body;
- at least one gripping feature extending from the body, the at least one gripping feature comprising a first substantially convex surface and a second substantially concave surface on a generally opposing side thereof;
- wherein the substantially convex surface provides substantially greater finger contact area than the substantially concave surface, such that the connector is configured to diminish the risk of over-tightening and increase the ease of loosening the connector from another medical device.
A rotatable connector comprising:
- a body;
- at least one gripping feature extending from the body;
- wherein the gripping feature is substantially flexed about the body when pressure is applied to at least one surface of the gripping feature.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.