Blank for and method of fabricating a needle cap finger guard

Claim 1

A blank for providing a needle cap, having a longitudinal axis and both an open end and a closed end with a finger guard upon wrapping the blank about the needle cap, said blank comprising at least one rhomboid piece of flexible sheet material that is resistant to piercing by a needle and is bounded by first and second pairs of parallel side edges, said piece of material being divided into a central rhomboid region and first and second border regions where the border regions border, respectively, each of one pair of the parallel side boundaries of said central region, each border region being also coextensive with and adjacent a corresponding one of said first pair of parallel side edges of the piece of material, substantially the entire area of said central rhomboid region being scored with substantially equidistantly spaced parallel lines of weakening extending from said first border region to said second border region, said first border region being provided on one side of said blank with a stripe of an adhesive substantially coextensive least over the length thereof with said first border region, said second border region having along an end portion on one side of said blank an area overlaid with an adhesive layer, said adhesive stripe and layer being disposed such that said stripe joins said blank to a needle cap as said blank is wrapped around said cap, and said layer of adhesive secures said end portion of the second border region to an underlying border portion when wrapping of said blank is completed, whereby when wrapping of said blank is completed a tubular element is formed having first and second circumferentially continuous end sections joined by a plurality of longitudinally extending circumferentially contiguous regions which separate into strips which project radially to form an umbrella-like structure when said end sections are urged axially toward one another.