Patent ID: 7377904

Claim:
A cartridge assembly for a lancing device, comprising: a housing; a carrier rotationally mounted within the housing; a plurality of lancets arranged in an array and carried by the carrier, the lancets each having a detachable protective cap, the lancets each rotationally advanceable with the carrier to an active position for use, and the active-positioned lancet radially retractable on the carrier along a lancing stroke path to a charged lancet position; and a spring element having an affixed first section, a second section that sequentially engages each of the lancet caps, and an intermediate section between the first section and the second section, wherein the intermediate section is ramped and offsets the first section from the second section, wherein the second section is deflectable between a rest position and a charged position, wherein as one of the lancets is rotationally advanced into the active position the lancet cap of the active-positioned lancet is moved into interfering engagement with and slides across the ramped intermediate section to deflect the second section to the charged position where the second section exerts a charged force on the active-positioned cap, wherein as the active-positioned lancet is radially retracted to the charged lancet position the active-positioned cap is detached from the active-positioned lancet and the charged force of the charged-position second section biases and displaces the active-positioned detached cap from the lancing stroke path of the active-positioned lancet as the second section discharges and returns to the rest position clear of the lancing stroke path, wherein as each one of the lancets is advanced into the active position its cap is displaced out of the lancing stroke path without any manual cap-displacing action by the user, wherein the carrier includes a plurality of guide tracks defining an array of transverse guide paths along which the lancet caps are displaced transversely from the lancing stroke path, and wherein the guide tracks are adapted to retain the lancet caps within the housing after displacement from the lancing stroke path.