Patent ID: 6923319

Claim:
A sharps container for facilitating (i) the safe transportation of a large number of unused pen needle assemblies, (ii) the safe dispensing of said unused pen needle assemblies from said container and (iii) the safe manual, sequential feeding of used pen needles into said container for safe storage therein, said pen needles having a cylindrical shape and a pre-selected outer diameter, said container comprising: A. a housing means sized to hold, in a bottom portion thereof, a plurality of unused pen needle assemblies, said housing having a bottom portion exit opening for facilitating the withdrawal there through of unused pen needle assemblies; B. means within said housing means for receiving and storing used pen needles; and C. used pen needle receiving and ejecting means connected to 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) an ejector assembly connected to said rotatable means to be rotated thereby about said axis, said ejector assembly comprising (i) an elongated member having recessed means at a first end thereof sized to receive a used pen needle and (ii) an ejector means connected to said elongated member for relative axial movement therewith and having cam follower means at one end thereof initially positioned a pre-selected distance beyond a second end of said elongated member, 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 means axially with respect to said elongated member toward said first end of said elongated member so that a second end of said ejector means 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 and follows said cam means, said ejector means will force said pen needle axially out of said recessed means into said means within said housing for receiving and storing used pen needles.