the upper segment 86 with the upper interior wall of the catheter hub retains the spring clip 40 a in its ready position within the catheter hub when the needle hub 12 and needle 16 are retracted to the right as viewed in fig1 a by a sufficient amount the needle tip 18 moves proximal of the lip 66 and eventually passes below the lip 66 when this occurs the downward force on the arm 65 releases thus allowing the arm 65 to snap upwards to the retracted position illustrated in fig4 b in which the arm 65 and the lip 66 extend over the needle tip 18 to thereby prevent accidental contact with the needle tip in this condition the needle guard 40 a is clamped onto the needle shaft 16 at points d and e of opening 70 and the needle and needle guard clamped thereto can be readily removed from the catheter hub while the prior art tip protector 40 a shown in fig1 a and 1b is well designed for its intended purposes there remains a number of improvements to the tip protector 40 a that could be made to make it more reliable effective and easier to manufacture with reference now to fig2 a tip protector provided in accordance with aspects of the present invention is shown which is generally designated 100 in one exemplary embodiment the tip protector 100 comprises a first protector body see also fig5 102 surrounded at least in part by a second protector body 104 in one.