Patent Publication Number: US-2022226584-A1

Title: Device for adjusting tightening angle of needle safety protector

Description:
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION 
     The present application claims priority to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2021-0006768, filed Jan. 18, 2021, the entire contents of which is incorporated herein for all purposes by this reference. 
     BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     Field of the Invention 
     The present disclosure relates generally to a device for adjusting the tightening angle of a needle safety protector and, more particularly, to a device for adjusting the tightening angle of a needle safety protector, wherein the device may correct a direction of a cut portion of an injection needle to a predetermined direction when a needle hub holding the injection needle is fastened to the needle safety protector having a reuse prevention structure. 
     Description of the Related Art 
     In general, syringes are classified into a general type syringe and a Luer-lock type syringe. The general type syringe includes a barrel as a main body of a syringe, a push rod with a finger grip, a plunger fastened to a front end of the push rod and pushing injection liquid in a piston manner, and an injection needle fastened to a tapered tube at a front end of the barrel, and the Luer-lock type syringe has a structure in which a separate Luer-lock connector is provided to be screwed to the front end of the barrel and a hub to which the injection needle is mounted is screwed to the Luer-lock connector. 
     In the Luer-lock type syringe, a main body of the syringe and a needle hub to which an injection needle is mounted are separately manufactured. The needle hub to which the injection needle is mounted is sealed and sterilized in a separate needle storage casing, and the main body consisting of a barrel and a push rod is also sterilized and packaged in a kit configured as one set for storage and distribution. When the syringe is used, a sterile paper is removed from the needle storage casing, a screw portion famed on an inner surface of a Luer-lock connector famed on a front end of the syringe main body is aligned to fastening protrusions foamed on both sides of a rear end of the needle hub and is turned, and then the syringe main body and the head portion are integrated to each other and the assembled syringe is separated from the needle storage casing to be used. 
     In the above method, syringes can be reused after use, and in some hospitals, transmission of injection by syringe reuse has become a social issue. In order to prevent this problem, a number of technique have been contrived to safely dispose of once used injection needles to prevent the used needles from being reused. 
     As an example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,582,397 B2 (Jun. 24, 2003) is proposed. In the related art, a groove receiving a flange is formed on a rear portion of a needle hub, a base has a hole, and a housing is connected to the base to be foldable. When the housing is folded while the needle hub is mounted to the base, an injection needle is inserted into the housing and arms formed on opposite sides of the base are aligned and fitted to locking grooves with tension formed at lower portions of opposite sides of the housing. When the housing is folded, the locking grooves with tension formed at the lower portions of the opposite sides of the housing are opened, and when the arms of the base is inserted into the locking grooves, the locking grooves are locked by tension recovery force not to be reopened, so that the used injection needle can be safely disposed of with a safety device. As another example, flaps protrude to be curved inward on opposite sides of the housing, so that the flaps are closed inward when the needle hub is inserted into the housing and the needle hub are prevented from being removed when the flaps are returned to the initial position by the recovery force. Therefore, the used injection needle can be safely disposed of with the safety device. 
     However, in the structure as described above, although the used injection needle may be disposed of with the hub and the safety device, the needle hub flange is simply fitted into the groove and hole of the base, so there is no clear countermeasure against the rotation in the hole. Furthermore, rotation can be prevented by a force-fitting method, but it is difficult to fit the needle hub tightly by the force fitting method because rotation adjusting is variable depending on the degree of force-fitting. 
     The fastening of the needle safety device and the needle hub is not performed manually, but is performed by an automatic device, so a tip of the injection needle is cut at an inclined angle to facilitate the injection into the human body and the cut surface is directed to the upper side when the injection needle is inserted into the human body. 
     Therefore, it is required to fasten the needle hub to the syringe main body in a predetermined direction. 
     However, when slight rotation occurs during insertion or attachment process so that the cut direction deviates from a predetermined direction during mounting of the injection needle to the needle hub, the fastening of the needle hub is performed in a wrong direction without a predetermined direction. Therefore, when the needle hub is fastened to the syringe main body for use, the cut surface of the injection needle is not directed in a different direction other than the upper side, which is a problem. 
     As another example, Korea Patent No. 10-1897956 “Needle assembly” is proposed as shown in  FIG. 1 . The needle assembly includes: a holder  10  holding an injection needle  2  and fastened to a needle protection cap  3  at a front side thereof and to a syringe  5  at a rear side thereof; a coupling device  20  having an insertion hole  21  provided coupling with a coupling portion  11  at the center of the holder  10 , and having locking grooves  22  with locking steps  22   a  on opposite sides of an upper portion of the coupling device  20 ; and a cover  30  having an insertion space portion  31  integrally connected to one side of the coupling device  20  to be vertically rotated by a hinge  35 , a supporting step  32  having an open side to allow the injection needle  2  to be inserted into the open side and to support the injection needle  2  inserted into the insertion space portion not to be separated therefrom, and locking protrusions  33  formed at opposite sides of a lower portion of the cover  30  and configured to be inserted into one of the locking grooves  22  of the coupling device  20 , wherein when the injection needle is disposed of after use, a locking step  33   a  of one of the locking protrusions  33  is locked to the locking steps  22   a  to be prevented from separation, so that the injection needle may be disposed of safely and be prevented from being reused. A coupling portion  15  of the holder  10  consists of a ring-shaped concave portion  18 , and a protrusion  28  is formed on an inner circumferential surface of the insertion hole  21  of the coupling device  20  to be inserted into the concave portion  18 , so that the protrusion  28  is forcibly inserted into and fastened to the concave portion  18 . A cut groove  21   a  is formed at one or more position of an inner surface of the insertion hole  21 , and the coupling portion  15  has an insertion protrusion  15   a  at a position corresponding to the cut groove  21   a  so that the coupling device  20  and the holder  10  are fastened to each other to be prevented from rotation. 
     However, in the related art configured as described above, when the needle hub is fastened to the Luer-lock type syringe main body by screwing, the cut groove  21   a  is formed on the inner surface of the insertion hole  21  of the holder  10 , and the holder  10  has the insertion protrusion  15   a  on the position corresponding to the cut groove  21   a.  When a locking protrusion  13   b  of the holder  10  is fastened to the Luer-lock screw portion of the syringe main body by screwing, the fastening is precisely performed without rotation at the fastening end point. However, as described above, when the injection needle  2  is mounted to the holder  10  in a wrong direction without the cut surface thereof facing the upper side, the mounted direction of the injection needle cannot be corrected with the above-described fastening structure, so the syringe is necessarily assembled and packaged while being mounted in a wrong direction. Accordingly, during use, the syringe is necessarily used with the cut portion not facing the upper side but being mounted in a wrong direction, and when the cut surface of the injection needle is directed to the lower side, the injection may occur by penetrating the skin of a patient in the wrong direction opposite the injecting direction, and this is a major problem that may cause a medical accident. 
     DOCUMENTS OF RELATED ART 
     (Patent Document 1) U.S. Pat. No. 6,582,397 B2 (Jun. 24, 2003); and 
     (Patent Document 2) Korea Patent No. 10-1897956 (Sep. 6, 2018) 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     Accordingly, the present disclosure has been made keeping in mind the above problems occurring in the related art, and the present disclosure is intended to propose a device for adjusting the tightening angle of a needle safety protector. When a needle hub is fastened to a needle safety protector having a reuse prevention structure, even when an injection needle is mounted to the needle hub while a cut-off direction of an end of the injection needle is turned, the device is configured to have tooth protrusions that may be engaged and cross over each other so that the needle safety protector and the needle hub are fastened to each other in a coupling hole. Accordingly, even when a cut-off end portion of the injection needle is mounted with a wrong direction, an angle of the injection needle may be corrected. 
     In order to achieve the above objective, according to one aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a device for adjusting the tightening angle of a needle safety protector. In the device, protrusions may be arranged at equal intervals on an inner surface of a hub coupling hole of a needle safety protector to which a needle hub is fastened, and protrusions may be formed in a circumference of a fastened body of the needle hub, wherein, when external force is applied to the protrusions of the needle safety protector and the protrusions of the needle hub coupled to each other to be rotated, the protrusions may be rotated to cross over each other, so that a cut surface of an end of an injection needle may be corrected to a predetermined direction. 
     According to the present disclosure, in providing the injection needle in an integrated state with the needle hub for preventing the reuse of the injection needle and in fastening the needle hub to the needle safety protector that is disposed of in a folded state after use, a fastening structure is improved such that rotation is possible by a predetermined angle when the needle safety protector is rotated. Therefore, even when the injection needle is fixed to the needle hub while a cut surface of a front end of the injection needle is rotated from the reference direction during a process of inserting and fastening the injection needle into the needle hub, the tightening angle can be adjusted while the Luer-lock connector at the front end of the syringe barrel is fastened to the needle hub, so that the injection can be safely performed by correcting the injection needle to the reference direction. In addition, even when the syringe is assembled by deviating from the reference angle during the mass production with the automatic line, the wrong angle can be corrected in use, so that usability and safety can be secured. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       The above and other objectives, features, and other advantages of the present disclosure will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which: 
         FIG. 1  is a perspective view showing a coupling state of a structure of the related art; 
         FIG. 2  is a perspective view showing a disassembled state of the structure of the related art; 
         FIG. 3  is a side perspective view showing an assembled state of a device according to the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 4  is a plan perspective view showing the assembled state of the device according to the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 5  is a lower perspective view showing a disassembled state of the device according to the present disclosure; 
         FIG. 6  is a sectional plan view showing an extracted main portion of an assembled state of the device according to the present disclosure; and 
         FIG. 7  is a side view with a partial sectional view showing an assembled state of a syringe barrel according to the present disclosure. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION 
     The above and other objectives, features, and advantages of the present disclosure will be more clearly understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. 
     In the flowing description, unless otherwise defined, all terms including technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and the present disclosure, and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein. 
     Hereinbelow, a device for adjusting the tightening angle of a needle safety protector, the needle safety protector having a reuse prevention structure, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure will be described in detail with reference to accompanying drawings. 
     As shown in the drawings, according to the present disclosure, a device for adjusting the tightening angle of a needle safety protector having a reuse prevention structure is fundamentally configured like a conventional needle safety protector that is configured to safely dispose of a needle after use. The device for adjusting the tightening angle of a needle safety protector includes a needle hub  101 , a needle safety protector main body  102 , and a cover  103  connected integrally with the needle safety protector main body  102  to be foldable thereto. 
     An injection needle  104  is inserted into and fixed to a front portion of the needle hub  101 , Luer-lock coupling protrusions  105   a  and  105   b  are formed by protruding on opposite sides of a rear portion of the needle hub  101 , the injection needle  104  is protected by being covered with a needle cap  106 , and the Luer-lock coupling protrusions  105   a  and  105   b  positioned at the rear portion of the needle hub  101  are fastened to a Luer-lock screw portion  108  formed at a front portion of a barrel  107  to constitute a syringe. 
     The cover  103  is connected to one side of the needle safety protector main body  102  while being foldable by a foldable connector  109  to be integrated with the needle safety protector main body  102 . A hub coupling hole  110  is formed by vertically passing through the center of the needle safety protector main body  102 . Cover coupling holes  111   a  and  111   b  are foiled on opposite sides of an upper portion of the needle safety protector main body  102 , and locking steps  112   a  and  112   b  protrude outward on opposite sides of a lower portion of the cover  103  to be inserted and coupled to the cover coupling holes. On one side in the cover, a locking plate  113  horizontally protrudes to hold the needle cap  106  when the cover  103  is folded. Hub locking protrusions  113   a  and  113   b  protrude on the opposite sides of the lower portion of the cover  103  so that the needle cap  106  may be fitted therein, but is prevented from being separated from the cover  103 . Therefore, the device for adjusting the tightening angle of a needle safety protector is configured to be safely disposed of together with the injection needle after use. 
     In the basic configuration as described above, on an inner circumferential surface of the hub coupling hole  110  vertically formed on the center portion of the needle safety protector main body  102 , tooth protrusions  114   a  formed in semicircles on a plan sectional view are arranged at equal intervals in a circumference of the hub coupling hole  110 . On a body surface of the needle hub  101  fitted into the hub coupling hole  110 , tooth protrusions  114   b  formed in semicircles on a plane sectional view are arranged at equal intervals in a circumference of the needle hub  101 , so that the needle hub  101  is tightened to the needle safety protector main body  102  with the tooth protrusions  114   a  formed along the hub coupling hole  110  and the tooth protrusions  114   b  famed on the body surface of the needle hub  101  alternately engaged with each other. 
     The number of the tooth protrusions  114   a,    114   b  is preferably formed at every 15° in the circumference, a total of 24. The height of each of the tooth protrusions  114   a,    114   b  is preferably formed to the height in which the needle hub  101  and the barrel  107  in a fastened state cross over each other when external force is applied thereto by rotating the syringe with normal hand force. 
     Meanwhile, it is unnecessary to adjust the rotation angle to 360° in the circumference for the engagement between the tooth protrusions  114   a  and  114   b.  During use of the syringe assembly to inject medicine into the human body, injecting is performed while the needle hub  101  and the needle safety protector main body  102  are fastened to each other and the cover  103  is directed upward, so the cover  103  interferes with the injecting when being directed downward or to opposite sides thereof. Accordingly, it is necessary to control the rotation angle with respect to the engagement between the tooth protrusions  114   a  and  114   b  so that the tooth protrusions  114   a  and  114   b  are not rotated more than half the circumference to the left and right. 
     For achieving the above structure, a hub sliding flange inserting groove  115  is formed on the circumference of the hub coupling hole  110  at a lower surface of the needle safety protector main body  102 , and a stopper  118  protrudes on a point of a sliding flange  117  formed at a rear circumference of the tooth protrusions  114   b  of the needle hub  101 . An inner diameter of the hub sliding flange inserting groove  115  expands by a protruding length of the stopper  118  in order to insert the stopper  118  into the hub sliding flange inserting groove  115 , and stopper locking steps  116   a  and  116   b  are formed on both left and right sides of the hub sliding flange inserting groove  115  to prevent the needle hub  101  from being rotated more than half the circumference to the left and right. 
     The present disclosure configured as described above is supplied while the needle safety protector main body  102  is fastened to the needle hub  101  as an all-in-one kit with the barrel  107 . In use, the Luer-lock screw portion  108  formed at the front portion of the barrel  107  is aligned with the Luer-lock coupling protrusions  105   a  and  105   b  formed on the opposite sides of the rear portion of the needle hub  101  and then rotated. Whereby, the barrel  107  and the needle hub  101  are fastened to each other in a screwing manner so that the syringe is ready for use. 
     Before using the syringe by fastening the device and the barrel as described above, when the device is fastened in visually wrong direction other than a reference direction in which a direction of a cut-off surface C of the injection needle  104  is directed to the upper side, a user holds the needle safety protector main body  102  with one hand and rotates the barrel  107  with the other hand holding the barrel  107 . Then, the tooth protrusions  114   b  protruding on an outer circumferential surface of a body of the needle hub  101  are rotated while crossing over the tooth protrusions  114   a  formed on the hub coupling hole  110  of the needle safety protector main body  102 , so that the user can safely inject by aligning the direction of the cut-off surface C of the injection needle  104 . 
     As described above, in addition that the user can directly adjust and use the syringe before injection, in the automatic packaging process line, it is possible to mechanically adjust the injection needle  104  that is fixed to the needle hub  101  while the direction of the cut-off surface C of the injection needle  104  is deviated from the reference direction. For example, when an optical sensor is applied to the cut-off surface C of the injection needle and light is prevented from passing through the injection needle, a rotation correction device may be operated to perform the rotation correction and therefore the packaging process may be carried out by aligning a direction uniformly. 
     When the syringe assembly is used for injecting into the human body, the needle hub  101  and the needle safety protector main body  102  should be controlled such that the needle hub  101  and the needle safety protector main body  102  coupled to each other with the cover  103  facing the upper side are not rotated more than half the circumference to the left and right. Therefore, as the hub sliding flange inserting groove  115  formed on the circumference of the hub coupling hole  110  at the lower surface of the needle safety protector main body  102  and the stopper  118  formed on one point of the sliding flange  117  formed on the rear circumference of the tooth protrusions  114   b  of the needle hub  101  are coupled to each other, the needle hub  101  may not be rotated more than half the circumference to the left and right. 
     As the optimal preferably embodiment of the present disclosure, the number of the tooth protrusions  114   a  and  114   b  in the present disclosure is suggested as 24 protrusions for each 15° of the circumference. However, the number of the tooth protrusions  114   a  and  114   b  may be provided to be more or less than 24 protrusions in response to the size and capacity of the syringe, and the protruding height of each of the tooth protrusions  114   a  and  114   b  may also be applied by designing various modifications in response to the situation within a range of heights in which the tooth protrusions  114   a  and  114   b  may cross over each other. 
     Although the invention is described with reference to specific items such as specific structural elements, to merely some embodiments, and to drawings, such specific details disclosed herein are merely representative for purposes of helping more comprehensive understanding of the present disclosure. The present disclosure, however, is not limited to only the example embodiments set forth herein, and those skilled in the art will appreciate that the present disclosure can be embodied in many alternate forms. 
     Accordingly, the present disclosure is intended to cover not only the exemplary embodiments, but also various alternatives, modifications, equivalents and other embodiments that may be included within the spirit and scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims.