Safety needle cover lock for an autoinjector
AssigneeYpsomed AG
InventorsMarkus Tschirren, Nicolas Gruenig, Gabriel Kalbermatter
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A needle cover lock for an autoinjector includes a prefilled syringe with a needle. When a device cap is attached to the autoinjector, a deflection of a locking member of the autoinjector is prevented by a stop surface and by a blocking surface of the cap, and thereby the cover sleeve is prevented to exit an extended position. When the device cap with its blocking surface is removed from the autoinjector, the locking member is allowed to deflect, thereby allowing the needle cover sleeve to exit the extended position and to move towards a retracted position. The locking member is deflectable in a plane tangent to a circumferential outer surface of the cover sleeve when the device cap is removed.
Claims15
A needle cover lock for an autoinjector adapted to automatically dispense a liquid product through a needle of a prefilled syringe, the needle cover lock comprising:
- a housing adapted to hold the syringe and defining a longitudinal direction;
- a needle cover sleeve movable relative to the housing between an extended position and a retracted position;
- and
- a device cap attached to a distal end of the autoinjector and covering a distal end of the needle cover sleeve in an unused state and removable by a user before using the autoinjector,
- wherein the housing or the needle cover sleeve includes a flexible locking member and the other of the housing and the needle cover sleeve includes a stop surface,
- wherein the device cap includes a blocking surface and when the device cap is attached, the blocking surface together with the stop surface are adapted to prevent a deflection of the locking member such that the needle cover sleeve is prevented from moving from the extended position,
- wherein when the device cap with the blocking surface is removed from the autoinjector, the locking member is allowed to deflect, thereby allowing the needle cover sleeve to move from the extended position towards the retracted position, and
- wherein the locking member is deflectable in a plane tangent to a circumferential outer surface of the needle cover sleeve when the device cap is removed.
A method of unlocking a needle cover lock of an autoinjector, the autoinjector comprising a prefilled syringe with a needle, the method comprising the steps of:
- a) removing a device cap from a distal end of the autoinjector, thereby removing a blocking surface from a flexible locking member;
- b) moving, in a longitudinal direction, a needle cover sleeve to exit an extended position and moving the cover sleeve to a retracted position, thereby engaging the locking member with a stop surface of an autoinjector housing;
- and
- c) deflecting, by the moving of the cover sleeve, the locking member in a plane tangent to an outer surface of the cover sleeve, thereby allowing further movement of the cover sleeve towards the retracted position.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.