Reusable Medical Needle Shield with Reset Mechanism
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current medical needle safety devices are cumbersome, costly, and often fail to reliably shield needle tips, making them difficult to use and posing a risk for hazardous exposure, especially in situations where patient care and disposal must be prioritized.
Innovation Solution
A slidably movable safety shield for medical needles that can be reset for re-use, featuring a binding member that is unlocked by a reset device, allowing easy and reliable protection of the needle tip and enabling safe reuse of the needle apparatus.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Object-affected harmful factors
If spring activated, telescoping, or pivoting sheaths are used to shield needle tips, then needle tip protection is improved, but device complexity and manufacturing cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent removes the complex spring, telescoping, or pivoting mechanisms from the safety device and replaces them with a simple slideable shield that moves linearly along the needle. This extraction of complex mechanical elements reduces device complexity while maintaining the core function of needle tip protection through a simpler, more reliable mechanism.
Solution Approach 2:
The safety device is segmented into distinct functional components: a binding member that secures the shield to the needle, a slideable shield that provides protection, and a reset device with recesses that enables controlled movement. This segmentation allows each component to perform its specific function independently, simplifying the overall device design while maintaining effectiveness.
2Reliability
If complex safety mechanisms are implemented to reliably shield needle tips, then shielding reliability is improved, but ease of operation deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The binding member is designed to automatically secure the slideable shield to the needle through friction or mechanical interference without requiring additional fastening steps. The slideable shield moves along the needle under its own weight or with minimal user input, eliminating the need for complex activation mechanisms and making the device easier to operate while maintaining reliable shielding.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of requiring the user to actively engage complex mechanisms to activate the shield, the device is designed so that the shield is already in position and can be easily moved or reset. The reset device with its recesses allows the shield to be returned to its protective position through simple manipulation, inverting the traditional approach where active engagement is required for activation.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If safety shields are designed to be disposable to ensure safety, then hazardous exposure prevention is improved, but loss of substance increases
Solution Approach 1:
The slideable shield and binding member are designed to be reusable rather than disposable. After use, the shield can be reset to its protective position using the reset device, allowing the same needle and shield assembly to be used multiple times. This recovering approach reduces waste and loss of substance while maintaining safety through the reusable protective mechanism.
Data Source
AI summary
A medical needle shield system is provided that includes a medical needle shield apparatus and a reset device. The reset device resets a safety housing on the medical needle. The reset device has alignment features which guide the safety housing towards reset features. The reset features pass through access features in the safety housing to reset the reset geometry so that the safety housing no longer sheathes a tip of the medical needle.