Patents Assigned to Retractable Technologies, Inc.
  • Patent number: 6572584
    Abstract: A tamperproof retractable non-reusable syringe has a one piece hollow outer body with a barrel for a slidable plunger, a transition zone and a smaller diameter nose portion. An elongated needle holder and spring combination is installable from the rear of the outer body, guided into the nose portion and held by cooperating inwardly and outwardly facing surfaces oriented in the direction of retraction at the most constricted part of the transition zone where the nose begins. The plunger has an opening with a dislodgable stopper for receiving parts of the retraction mechanism. The stopper and the head of the needle holder are of significantly reduced diameter from the injection fluid chamber to resist blowing out prematurely. In one embodiment the head of the needle holder is surrounded by a separable retainer member which is slidingly removed by contact with the tip of the plunger after the stopper is mostly or fully removed to avoid cumulation of force required for retraction after the injection.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 7, 2000
    Date of Patent: June 3, 2003
    Assignee: Retractable Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas J. Shaw, Judy Zhu, Diane Rutherford
  • Patent number: 6494863
    Abstract: A retracting syringe of one use has a plunger comprising a handle portion and a needle retention portion forward of the handle portion. A positive locking structure in the syringe barrel ensures the syringe is not reused. In one embodiment, the positive locking structure is a stop in the syringe barrel. The handle portion separates after one use and is removed from the syringe. In a second embodiment, the handle portion has a plurality of stepped serrations and the positive locking structure is a clip which is movable with respect to both the handle portion and the barrel. In a third embodiment, the positive locking structure is a clip fixed in an enlarged back opening of the barrel with springing points which are protected from a plurality of stepped serrations on the handle portion by a sliding collar. This one use feature can be applied to a nonretracting syringe.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 15, 2001
    Date of Patent: December 17, 2002
    Assignee: Retractable Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas J. Shaw, Judy Zhu
  • Patent number: 6474472
    Abstract: A sharps bagging apparatus has an access member with one or more conforming openings which conform to the profile of a retracted medical device to allow bagging collected retracted medical devices with a satisfactory degree of assurance that all or virtually all the devices are in the safe retracted condition. The access member is used with a collapsible disposal bag which may removably fill a disposal container or in one embodiment be fixedly secured to the access member. The access member is adapted to fit plastic or wire containers removably or lockedly. Sloping sides in the access member create a centering well which tends to center a retracted device and may include a triggering wall which can activate the retraction mechanism of an unretracted device. When the access member is provided with an attached collapsible bag, they can be stacked for economical transport and storage.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 14, 1999
    Date of Patent: November 5, 2002
    Assignee: Retractable Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Thomas J. Shaw
  • Patent number: 6221055
    Abstract: A single use retractable medical device dispenses fluids from a separable carpule. A retraction mechanism having a spring loaded needle holder with a double ended needle is mounted in the front of a housing by means of a push ring (separable member) slidingly mounted on a widened portion of the needle holder. An outer edge of the push ring grips or is restrained by the inner wall surface of the housing to hold the needle holder in place. A carpule positioned through an opening in back of the housing is operated by a plunger which drives a separable two-part piston to unload medicine from the carpule through the needle. At the end of an injection, the plunger is depressed further. The carpule moves forward to remove the push ring thereby freeing the needle holder for retraction into the carpule through the front opening of the carpule. As the needle is retracted into the housing from one end, the edge of the thumb cap of the plunger disappears into an opening at the opposite end of the housing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 1, 1999
    Date of Patent: April 24, 2001
    Assignee: Retractable Technologies, Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas J. Shaw, Ni Zhu
  • Patent number: 6210371
    Abstract: A retractable winged I.V. set has a slidable retraction body mounted in a hollow chamber of a housing. The retraction body has a hollow needle fixed in its front end and a tube connector for passing fluid from an external reservoir through the needle. The housing has a pivoting releasable latch preferably configured as dual opposed latches that are biased to normally encroach into the chamber through an opening in the wall of the housing. A catch portion on the retraction body is contacted by an encroaching latch portion to hold the retraction body in an unretracted position with the needle exposed for use. When the latches are released, a spring drives the retraction body to the back of the chamber and withdraws the needle into the housing.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 30, 1999
    Date of Patent: April 3, 2001
    Assignee: Retractable Technologies, Inc.
    Inventor: Thomas J. Shaw
  • Patent number: 6015438
    Abstract: A full displacement retractable syringe has a front mounted retraction mechanism and a plunger with a sliding seal and a retraction opening with a sliding stopper. A needle holder is held in place with a holding ring which seals the front part of the barrel from fluid leakage and forms the bottom of a variable chamber in the barrel. The top of the variable chamber is formed by the nose of the plunger with its sliding plunger seal and stopper. Substantially all of the fluid contained in the variable chamber is expelled through a needle when the plunger is depressed to bring the upper and lower boundaries of the fluid chamber together. Because the plunger seal is restrained from forward movement by a stop in the barrel, the nose of the plunger slides through the plunger seal to operate the retraction mechanism.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 14, 1997
    Date of Patent: January 18, 2000
    Assignee: Retractable Technologies Inc.
    Inventor: Thomas J. Shaw
  • Patent number: 5989220
    Abstract: A self-retracting IV catheter introducer automatically retracts the catheter needle safely within a housing when the connector attached to the cannula is separated from the housing after the cannula has been inserted into a patient. In one embodiment the housing comprises a retraction tube enclosing a retraction body having a rear portion mounted within the retraction tube and a front portion carrying a needle and extending through an opening in the front of the retraction body. A connection surface on the exposed front of the retraction body is frictionally engaged with a corresponding connection surface on the connector. Abutting surfaces between the connector and the retraction tube serve as stops. Releasable frictional engagement of the connection surfaces prevents retraction. In a second embodiment the front portion of the retraction tube extends forwardly configured as springing arms having a protrusion which engages a depression in the outer surface of an extending front portion of the retraction body.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 26, 1998
    Date of Patent: November 23, 1999
    Assignee: Retractable Technologies Inc.
    Inventors: Thomas J. Shaw, Kathryn Duesman