Patent ID: 8596453

Claim:
A device unitarily molded into a sharps container adapted to remove a scalpel blade from a scalpel handle, each blade having a rear edge which abuts a rear surface of a neck of the handle in a locking relationship, the handle further having a narrow inserted portion provided at a front end thereof and grooves provided along the periphery of the inserted portion, the blade also having a slot for receiving the grooves of the inserted portion of the handle, the grooves being slidable in the slot and passing through a wider opening at a portion of the slot to permit the blade to be removed from the inserted portion, the device comprising: (a) a generally rectangular, vertical and broad opening defined at a bottom edge by a lowest and widest edge of an upward ramp and at left and right edges by edges of, respectively, left and right sidewalls, where the top edge of the broad opening is open; (b) the upward ramp extending upward and narrowing backward of the sidewalls from the lowest and widest edge to an uppermost and narrowest edge; (c) a generally horizontal top ramp extending further back from the uppermost and narrowest edge of the upward ramp, the top ramp having a left to right width about that of the uppermost and narrowest edge of the upward ramp; (d) a right wall extending up and bounding a right side of the upward ramp; (e) a left wall bounding a lower part of the left side of the upward ramp; (f) a flexible wall fixed at one end near a backside of the left sidewall and extending freely therefrom to a notched end, where a right side of the notched end bounds at least part of an upper left part of the upward ramp; and (g) the device is adapted so that: (i) a tip of a bladed scalpel may be inserted past the broad opening to force a bottom edge of the blade to slide up the upward ramp and come to rest on the top ramp; and (ii) the right side of the notched end springs against the rear surface of the neck of the blade behind the rear edge of the blade, whereafter the handle is withdrawn and the rear edge of the blade is engaged in the notched end.