I.V. Infusion or blood collection assembly with automatic safety feature

Claim 1

A permanent automatic locking shield for mounting on a conventional I.V. infusion set comprising (a) a first elongated shield part; (b) a second elongated shield part; (c) means for joining said front and second shield parts together over a conventional I.V. infusion set; (d) said first shield part being substantially flat for receiving an I.V. infusion set in sliding engagement for moving an I.V infusion set and its associated wings from a first use position to a second permanently locked position; (e) said second shield part having curved walls for forming a chamber with said first part, said chamber for receiving an I.V. infusion set therein; (f) said chamber having a first end through which the needle of an I.V. infusion set extends for use, and a second end through which the tube of an I.V. infusion set extends; (g) a first pair of opposed grooves in said chamber through which the wings of an I.V. infusion set extends, one each of said first pair positioned on each side of said locking shield adjacent said first end to form said first use position; (h) a second paid of opposed grooves in said chamber spaced from said first pair, with one each of said second pair positioned on each side of said locking shield adjacent said second end to form said permanently locked position; (i) a flexible slot positioned on each side of said chamber, each slot extending from its respective use position groove to its permanently locked position groove for accommodating the wings of an I.V. infusion set therein moving from said first use position to said second permanently locked position; and (j) the front wall forming each of said permanent locking grooves being perpendicular to the axis of said chamber; (k) whereby once wings of an I.V. infusion set move into said permanently locked position, the said perpendicular front walls prevent movement permanently of the wings forwardly out of said permanently locked position grooves.