Abstract: A needle and a cover with a needle having an elongate shank and a tip with a sharpened point. The cover is coaxially associated with the elongate shank for movement therealong toward the tip and includes a part for extending beyond the sharpened point when the cover is positioned near the tip. A lock associated with the needle and cover cooperates with and holds the cover to prevent axial movement relative to the needle tip after positioning the cover near the tip. A retaining member on the adapter and on the cover releasably attach the cover to the adapter while on the elongate shank of the needle allowing the needle and cover to be disengaged from the catheter and adapter after placement.

Abstract: A needle and a cover with a needle having an elongate shank and a tip with a sharpened point. The cover is coaxially associated with the elongate shank for movement therealong toward the tip and includes a part for extending beyond the sharpened point when the cover is positioned near the tip. A lock associated with the needle and cover cooperates and holds the cover to prevent axially movement relative to the needle tip after positioning the cover near the tip. The needle and cover may be a part of a catheter assembly having a catheter and an adapter connected to one another for fluid communication and carried coaxially about the needle and hub. The catheter has a bore therethrough sized to surround the elongate shank for movement therewith during insertion and therealong during placement.

Abstract: A valved adapter for a medical access device includes a body with a longitudinal axis. The body has a proximal first end, a distal second end and a passageway therethrough which has an inside surface. The passageway has a chamber defined by a proximal shoulder and a segmented distal shoulder both projecting inwardly from the surface of the passageway. The chamber is located intermediate the first end and second end of the body. The adapter includes a valve contained within the chamber for selectively obstructing and allowing fluid flow through the passageway. The valve includes an elongate resilient member with an axis substantially coaxial to the longitudinal axis of the body having a proximal end and a distal end. The elongate resilient member is axially compressed between the distal shoulder and the proximal shoulder, the compression biasing the valve to a normally closed position.

Abstract: A catheter having a side port for selective infusion of fluids is disclosed. The side port may be deactivated so that the catheter can be used as a non-side port catheter. The side port is rotable about the catheter housing to; block off access to the catheter lumen from the side port when the side port is deactivated. The catheter is also provided with a valve to facilitate the selective infusion of fluid from the side port into the catheter lumen.

Abstract: An assembly for introducing a catheter into a blood vessel is provided. The assembly includes a needle hub having a needle secured thereto. The needle includes an elongate shaft having a bevelled tip. A portion of the needle shaft adjacent to the tip has a relatively large outside diameter. The shaft diameter of this portion exceeds the diameter, of the shaft portion adjoining the tip and the diameter of the shaft portion extending between the enlarged shaft portion and the needle hub. A catheter is mounted over the shaft of the needle, and includes an inner surface which bears against the enlarged shaft portion. A substantially leak-proof seal is thereby provided between the catheter and the needle shaft. A needle tip cover is slidably mounted to the needle shaft and is engageable with the enlarged portion of the shaft to prevent its removal therefrom. The catheter is releasably mounted to the needle tip cover.

Abstract: An inserter body with a first end and a first part thereon and a second end and a second part thereon includes at passageway aligned along an axis passing through the body. A catheter is held in fluid tight relation with the passageway in the first part by a collar placed to expand the catheter against the passageway. A pair of wings extend in a plane normal to the axis and are joined to the body for folding toward one another without distorting the fluid tight relation of the catheter and the passageway. Areas of stress relief are positioned where the wings and the first part of the body join. A method provides a stress free juncture between the wings of a catheter inserter and the body so that folding the wings during catheter insertion can not distort the junction between the catheter and the passageway through the body. The method includes forming openings between the body and the wings adjacent the part where the catheter is wedged into fluid tight relation with the body passageway.

Abstract: A catheter adapter, with a side port connection, contains a one-piece integral bifunctional resilient combination valve which serves to prevent back flow from the patient. It allows infusion from either the primary axial port or from the side port and provides automatic shut-off when the infusion pressure becomes lower than the ambient pressure in the patient's body from either port.

Abstract: A needle cooperates with a tip cover the coaxially fits about the needle and slides axially relative thereto. A thin walled tube of the needle has a shank portion extending from the proximal end toward the distal end and a tip portion extending from the distal end toward the proximal end. The tip portion has a diameter that is larger than the diameter of the shank portion. The needle includes a transition zone between the shank and tip portions wherein the axial distance of the transition zone is about an order of magnitude greater than the difference in the diameters of the tip and shank portions. The tip portion includes a bevel extending from the distal end toward the transition zone as a sharpened edge to ease insertion. The cover includes a bearing and a tip protecting part. The bearing is sized to coaxially fit about the shank portion and slide axially relative thereto. The difference in the diameters of the tip and shank portions is such that the bearing can not slide distally over the transition zone.

Abstract: An over the needle catheter with adapter that has an integral valve in a passage. Distal and proximal parts form the adapter along an axis. The distal part communicates with a catheter. A hub conjugates with the proximal part and has a needle extending along the axis and through the passage when the hub is within the proximal part. A valve assembly has an elongate resilient member captured in the passage between the parts. A proximal portion of the valve assembly is engaged by a fitting to open the valve. A valve seat in the passage has a frusto-conical surface located coaxial about the axis and facing the distal part. The seat engages a chamfered surface on the elongate resilient member to seal and prevent flow and to allow flow when the seal is broken by axial compression of the elongate resilient member by the fitting. A septum like end across the elongate resilient member permits the needle to pass therethrough in a resealable fashion.

Abstract: A flashback plug has a body molded of a semi-transparent polymeric material along and about an axis. A distal end of the body engages in fluid tight communication a needle hub flash chamber and a proximal end extends therefrom to receive a fitting. A passage extends through the body along the axis from the proximal end to the distal end to permit flow therethrough. A vent membrane of a hydrophobic filter media is mounted by its periphery across the passage. The vent membrane is insert molded within the body to capture the proximally extending periphery thereof so that liquid in the passage distal end can not reach the proximal end. The proximal end of the passage has the shape of a female luer taper which terminates distally at the vent membrane. A pair of opposed channels extend longitudinally and parallel to the axis from the vent membranes to the proximal end. The distal end of the body has an outside a male luer for engaging the needle hub flash chamber.

Abstract: A portable hand held and manually operated label printer and a method of its use in transferring information from a master plate onto a pressure sensitive label. The printer consists of a magazine section wherein a continuous roll of serially linked pressure sensitive labels are installed with the roll end thereof threaded through an appropriate passage into a manually operated label receiving and printing group. A printing roller arranged on a spring biased slide within the label receiving and printing group, is manually displaced to travel over one of the pressure sensitive labels, sandwiching it against a master plate, transferring raised characters formed on the master plate into the label.

Abstract: An impact kinetic energy absorber with automatic return in which the kinetic energy of impact is applied to an impact receiving container having a movable wall and substantially filled with plastic material which on impact is forced to be extruded through an orifice into a second plastic receiving container also substantially filled with plastic material so that on impact plastic material is extruded through said orifice to absorb kinetic energy and plastic material is compressed in said second container, which compressed plastic, after said impact forces plastic material to be extruded back through said orifice to return said impact receiving container and movable wall to the original position. In one embodiment a spring returns the plastic material to its pre-impact receiving position so that the plastic material is under a pressure below its yield point except only for that portion of the plastic that is being forced back through the orifice to return to its original pre-impact position.

Abstract: Thin material such as hair or paper is severed by a singeing process using the heated and opposed edges of two thin strips of metal with the edges closely spaced apart to form a slot and with the edges heated by high frequency electrical current or currents flowing along such strips and exhibiting therewith and therebetween skin and proximity effects, and by moving such strips relative to such material so that the material to be singed or severed enters such slot and is therein singed to effect severance by such singeing.

Abstract: A needle and a cover with a needle having an elongate shank and a tip with a sharpened point. The cover is coaxially associated with the elongate shank for movement therealong toward the tip and includes a part for extending beyond the sharpened point when the cover is positioned near the tip. A lock associated with the needle and cover cooperates with and holds the cover to prevent axial movement relative to the needle tip after positioning the cover near the tip. A retaining member on the adapter and on the cover releasably attach the cover to the adapter while on the elongate shank of the needle allowing the needle and cover to be disengaged from the catheter and adapter after placement.