Needle protector apparatus

Claim 1

In a needle protective assembly adapted to fixedly engage a syringe assembly having a needle and hub directly secured to a cartridge provided with a nose portion and wherein the hub includes front and rear surfaces with the latter adjacent a reduced diameter annular clearance formed by the cartridge nose, the improvement comprising; an inner sleeve having opposite front and rear faces and including an axial bore surrounded by an inner surface, a reduced diameter inner ring on said inner sleeve adjacent said front face, stop means comprising a rearwardly facing shoulder on said reduced diameter inner ring, attachment means on said inner sleeve intermediate said front and rear faces and adapted to engage a syringe assembly hub when said rear face and inner surface is slipped over a syringe assembly cartridge, said attachment means including an inwardly directed resilient tab normally biased toward said bore, an outer sleeve having opposite forward and rearward portions and including an inner surface slidable over said inner sleeve from a pre-use position substantially fully surrounding said inner sleeve to a post-use position wherein said outer sleeve enshrouds the syringe assembly needle, said inner and outer sleeves retained upon the syringe assembly cartridge with said inner sleeve resilient tab disposed within the reduced diameter annular clearance and abutting the rear surface of the hub while said rearwardly facing shoulder abuts the front surface of the hub to captively engage the hub and preclude axial displacement of said inner sleeve relative the syringe assembly, latch means comprising a pair of axially opposed and inwardly directed resilient fingers on said outer sleeve adjacent said rearward portion initially biasingly engaging said inner sleeve and retaining said outer sleeve substantially fully surrounding said inner sleeve to maintain said pre-use position, and catch means on said inner sleeve adjacent said front face and engageable by said outer sleeve latch means when said outer sleeve is axially displaced forwardly relative said inner sleeve, said catch means including a flange section and an adjacent annular groove whereby engagement between said inner sleeve catch means and outer sleeve latch means axially locks said sleeves in a relatively extended post-use position with said flange section captively disposed intermediate said pair of resilient fingers.