Patent ID: 6880701

Claim:
A storage container for a hypodermic needle, the hypodermic needle having a connecting end which has connectors complementary with connectors on the tip of an injection instrument, one of the connectors having radial elasticity and devices for converting an axial force exerted between the needle and the injection instrument into at least one radial component capable of deforming the elastic connectors, the container having a housing designed for holding the needle in a determined position, and an opening giving access to the housing; wherein an exterior wall bounding the housing has a cylindrical guiding surface coaxial with the longitudinal axis of the housing and designed to engage with a complementary guiding surface of the instrument so that the engagement of these guiding surfaces with each other allows the complementary connectors to be put in the assembling position, following the exertion on the devices for converting an axial force into at least one radial component of a pressure coaxial with the longitudinal axis of the housing, wherein the housing holding the hypodermic needle in a determined position has two coaxial openings at a distance from each other, the first of these openings having a fixed diameter approximately equal to the diameter of the connecting end, while the second opening is delimited by elastically radial devices so as to allow its diameter to vary between the minimum diameter and the maximum diameter, and in that a ring having an internal diameter approximately equal to that of the first opening grips the connecting end while projecting from its rear face, thus keeping back the locking elements, this ring having, at a distance from its projecting end equal to the distance between the two said openings, passages whose dimensions allow the locking elements to pass through them and to project within the ring, so that, once the complementary connectors are connected together displacing the injection instrument outwards along its axis causes the hypodermic needle and the ring to shift until the ring rests against the rim of the first opening, in which position the locking elements pass through the passages and the ring separates from the connecting end, while the reinsertion of the connecting end into the housing causes this connecting end to be held in position by the locking elements.