Connection system for flexible tubing

Claim 1

A connector assembly for connecting one end of a plastic tube to a port opening in a device with which the tube is in fluid transport relation, said device including a stepped recessed port opening having an inner opening portion sized to receive a short length of said one end of the tube and an outer opening portion having a larger internal diameter, a sealing O-ring positioned in said outer opening portion, said O-ring being adapted to sealingly engage the inner wall of said outer opening portion and the periphery of the tube at a short distance from its inserted end, a sleeve member having a generally cylindrical inner end portion with inner and outer wall surfaces surrounding a portion of the length of the tube axially outwardly from said O-ring and substantially filling the space between the tube and the inner wall of the outer opening portion, said sleeve member further having an outer end portion which comprises a pair of normally spaced apart leg portions which are joined together at the inner end of said sleeve member and which are integral with said generally cylindrical inner end portion and flexibly movable toward each other at their outer ends in a direction transverse to the axis of said sleeve, said leg portions each having radially outwardly extending projection means intermediate the inner and outer ends of said sleeve, each of said leg portions having a channel-shaped slot therein adjacent its outer end which faces the slot in the other of said leg portions, said slots being in a plane normal to the axis of said sleeve, said device having recess means in the inner wall of said outer opening portion which are complementary to said projection means and are adapted to be engaged by said projections on said leg portions to retain said sleeve and prevent its axial movement relative to said outer opening portion when a length of tubing is mounted in said sleeve, and a bifurcated retaining member having generally parallel elongated leg portions which are adapted to be inserted into the slots in said sleeve and into compressive deforming contact with opposed sides of a length of tubing mounted in said sleeve member, said retaining member being of a size sufficient to engage at least a portion of the bottoms of each of said channel-shaped slots, the engagement of said retaining member with said slots serving to maintain said projection means in engagement with said recess means.