Patent ID: 7867244

Claim:
A lancing assembly comprising: a removable lancet having a body terminating in a sharp tip and a sleeve disposed about at least a portion of the body for sliding movement between a forward position in which the sharp tip is protectively surrounded by the sleeve and a rearward position in which the sharp tip projects from the sleeve; and a lancing device comprising: a housing; a lancet carrier slidably disposed within the housing and adapted to receive the lancet body; a user-actuated ejection slide mounted to the housing and configured to move the sleeve toward the forward position and to eject the lancet from the lancet carrier; and a locking member cooperating with the ejection slide to move into a blocking engagement with the lancet carrier as the ejection slide moves the sleeve to the forward position, the locking member configured so that the blocking engagement both restrains forward movement of the lancet carrier and the release of the lancet body from the lancet carrier.