Patent ID: 8398665

Claim:
A lancing system for withdrawing body fluid from the skin of a human or animal, the system comprising a lancing element having a tip for piercing into the skin, and a lancing instrument with a housing, including a lancing drive which drives a lancing movement of a lancing element, which is connected to the lancing drive, wherein the lancing drive comprises a drive source and a transmission, by which a movement of the drive source is converted into a lancing movement of the lancing element, the lancing movement including a forward phase during which the lancing element is moved along a predetermined piercing path in a piercing direction until the tip of the lancing element penetrates into the skin and a retraction phase during which the lancing element is retracted after reaching a reversal point corresponding to the lancing depth into the skin, and the transmission includes a housing coupling mechanism which comprises at least two transmission links, a housing bearing that allows rotation but is translationally fixed relative to the housing, and a coupling element adapted for coupling a lancing element thereto, wherein a first, housing-side transmission link is connected by the housing bearing with housing of the lancing instrument and a second, lancing-element-side transmission link is connected to the coupling element, a lancing depth limiting stop is so positioned in the housing that a stop surface of the lancing element contacts the lancing depth limiting stop during the forward phase of the lancing movement, such that the movement of the lancing element in the piercing direction is limited by contact of the stop surface of the lancing element with the lancing depth limiting stop, and the housing coupling mechanism has a length compensation device adapted for a distance adaptation of the spacing between the lancing element and the housing bearing, said distance adaptation including a change of the position of the lancing element relative to the coupling element when the stop surface of the lancing element contacts the lancing depth limiting stop and the lancing drive continues to move from a first position to a second position, the tip of the lancing element being closer to the coupling element in the second position than in the first position.