A needle tip shielding mechanism is described herein. The shielding mechanismcomprises an outer housing, anin-ner housing, and a needle having a needle feature. Generally, the outerhousing comprises at least one adapter-interlock feature.Moreover, the inner housing comprises a needle-feature capture mechanism, suchas a washer feature, and a needle-tip capturemechanism, such as duckbilled tip barrier. In some cases, the inner housing isslidably moveable within the outer housing. In suchcases, the inner housing is movable between a first position that biases theadapter-interlock feature into an engaged position and asecond position that allows the adapter-interlock feature to move to anunengaged position. This ability to bias the interlockfea-ture in the engaged position and to allow the interlock feature to move tothe unengaged position allows the shielding mechanismto be selectively coupled to and released from an interlock-feature matingcomponent within a catheter adapter.
