Patent ID: 7344027

Claim:
A sharps container for facilitating the safe manual, sequential feeding of cylindrically shaped used pen needles into said container for safe storage therein, said pen needles having a pre-selected outer diameter, and said container comprising: A. housing means with an internal storage space sized to facilitate the safe storage therein of a plurality of used pen needles, and B. used pen needle receiving and ejecting means within said housing means and including: (1) manually rotatable means connected to said housing means for rotation relative to said housing means about an axis, (2) a pen needle ejector assembly having an ejector axis and connected to said rotatable means to be rotated thereby about said axis, said ejector assembly comprising (i) an elongated means having recessed means at a first end thereof sized to receive a used pen needle and (ii) an ejector member connected to said elongated member for relative axial movement therewith and having (a) cam follower means at one end thereof initially positioned a pre-selected axial distance along said ejector axis beyond a second end of said elongated means, and (b) a second end initially positioned adjacent said used pen receiving means, and (3) cam means connected to and within said housing positioned for contacting said cam follower means when said rotatable member and said ejector assembly is rotated about said axis to thereby move said ejector member axially with respect to said elongated means toward said first end thereof so that a second end of said ejector member provides a pen needle ejecting motion; whereby, when a pen needle is positioned in said recessed means and said manually rotatable means is rotated about said axis sufficiently so that said cam follower means contacts said cam means, said ejector member will force said pen needle axially out of said recessed means into said container storage space.