JPH0446520B2 - - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Application of the Invention] This invention relates to a custom in-the-ear hearing aid (Custom
In The Ear).

Custom in-the-ear hearing aids are hearing aids that are manufactured to suit the shape of each individual's outer ear and canal and hearing loss. In other words, the hearing aid body, which consists of a microphone, earphones, amplifier, etc. that fits the individual's hearing loss, is placed inside an ear-shaped case made of synthetic resin that is manufactured to fit the shape of the outer ear and ear canal of each individual wearing the hearing aid. It refers to a thing that incorporates a part. In this case, the ear-shaped case also functions as an ear-shaped ear sensor.

[Technical background of the invention]

Hearing aids that have been commonly used in the past can be categorized based on their shape: box-type, glasses-type, behind-the-ear type, and in-ear type, but all of them are uniformly manufactured, so to speak, ready-made ear sensors or ear sensors. It used shaped earphones. However, since each individual's ear canal has individual differences, this method does not necessarily provide a tight fit when wearing the ear pads, so they tend to fall off easily and are not comfortable to wear. .

In response, an ear-shaped ear sensor made of synthetic resin that is manufactured to fit each individual's external ear and external auditory canal has been proposed, and the above-mentioned problems have been solved.

It is also possible to embed a conventional in-the-ear type hearing aid into the above-mentioned in-the-ear type ear sensor, but depending on the shape of the ear, it is often not possible to embed it, and even if it can be implanted, the weight of the entire hearing aid will be heavy. In fact, this method has not been adopted as it is not suitable for comfortable wearing.

By the way, custom in-the-ear hearing aids have been proposed with the above technical background, and because they fit snugly into the external ear and external auditory canal, they are difficult to fall out and are unnoticeable, making them desirable.

Conventionally, this hearing aid was manufactured by making a mold of the outer ear and ear canal for each individual using an impression material such as silicone resin or gutta percha, using this as a mother mold, and then making a mother mold of plaster or the like. A shell 1 of an in-the-ear hearing aid having a wall thickness of about 1 m/m is made by pouring a polymeric resin as shown in FIG. Acrylic resin is attached with components such as an earphone 2, a microphone 3, an amplifier 4, a battery case 5, a volume adjustment switch 6, a gain adjustment device 7, etc. shown in FIG. A face plate 8 made of a hard synthetic resin such as the like is adhesively bonded. Note that both are made of the same material and have good adhesive properties. The extra face plate 8 protruding from the shell 1 is cut off and further polished. Therefore, the rest of the interior of this hearing aid is hollow, which is advantageous because it is light in weight.

As described above, such conventional custom in-ear hearing aids are made of hard synthetic resin such as acrylic resin. That is, because the face plate 8 needs to stably hold each component, and because the shell 1 is adhesively bonded to the face plate 8, the same hard synthetic resin, such as acrylic resin, must be used.
Therefore, because they are hard, when you wear them in your ears while talking or eating, the movements of your muscles and jaw press the ear canal, causing discomfort.
Some people may find it painful. Furthermore, since it cannot be inserted deeply into the ear canal, it tends to cause howling, so it cannot be applied to high-output hearing aids.

In order to correct such defects, it is desirable to make the shell body from a soft synthetic resin such as vinyl chloride resin.
However, on the other hand, the face plate to which each component such as an amplifier is attached must be made of hard synthetic resin in order to stably hold each component.
By the way, the adhesive bond between the shell made of soft synthetic resin and the face plate made of hard synthetic resin is not a good adhesive bond because the two do not fit together well. Moreover, the bonding area between the two is only the thickness of the shell. This results in the inconvenience that it is not possible to firmly connect the two. There is also a method of using high frequency processing as a bonding means, but as in the case of adhesives, unless they are made of the same material, the melting and bonding will not work properly.

In order to solve the above problems, the applicant has already developed two
(Japanese Patent Application No. 59-032700, Utility Application No. 59-070510)

[Purpose of the invention]

An object of the present invention is to provide a custom in-the-ear type hearing aid that is comfortable to wear by achieving a sufficiently strong connection between a face plate made of a hard synthetic resin and a shell made of a soft synthetic resin.

[Summary of the invention]

In order to achieve this objective, according to the present invention, the face plate to which components such as the microphone are attached is made of hard synthetic resin such as acrylic resin, and is made of soft synthetic resin such as vinyl chloride resin to fit the external ear and ear canal. The shell is made of resin, and the face plate and the shell are adhesively bonded via a polymer made of acrylic resin powder and acrylic ester monomer.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In Figures 4 and 5, 11 is vinyl chloride resin;
The shell is made of a soft synthetic resin such as silicone resin and has a wall thickness of approximately 1 m/m, using a matrix made from an impression mold of each individual's external ear and external auditory canal.
12 is a polymer made of acrylic resin and acrylic ester formed on the end surface of the green part of the shell body 11.
Reference numeral 13 denotes a face plate made of hard synthetic resin such as acrylic resin or ABS resin to which components such as a microphone are attached.

Next, the manufacturing method will be described.

First, as shown in FIG. 1, a shell 11 having a wall thickness of approximately 1/2 m/m is molded using a matrix made from impression molds of the external ear and external auditory canal of each individual (person with hearing loss). This shell body is made of a soft synthetic resin such as vinyl chloride resin.
The production of this shell body is no different from conventional methods.

Next, on the green end surface 11A of this shell 11, acrylic resin powder and acrylic ester monomer,
Preferably, a paste mixed with a monomer of methyl methacrylic methyl ester is added to a height of 1
m/m, corresponding to the thickness of the shell 11, for example width 2
The shells 11 are arranged so that the edges thereof are extended, and then the end faces are formed flat and polymerized and hardened. At this time, it is desirable to heat the mixture to around 60°C in order to carry out rapid polymerization. During the polymerization process, the monomer permeates into the shell 11, and the polymer 12 and the shell 11 are firmly bonded to each other. In more detail, this means forming a stable entanglement by polymerizing and curing a paste-like mixture of polymers and monomers, or IPN.
(Interpenetrating Polymer Network: Interpenetrating polymer network) This is a method of synthesis that allows it to be firmly bonded to a soft shell. 1 The resulting product is shown in Figure 6. By the way, the reason why it is made into a paste form is that it is easy to handle, that is, it is easy to put it on the edge end surface 11A of the shell 11. Therefore, the acrylic resin powder and the acrylic ester monomer are mixed until they become a paste.

There are other methods for forming such a polymer on the edge of the shell 11, such as molding the shell 11 from a soft synthetic resin such as vinyl chloride resin from the aforementioned matrix mold. After the molding, the above-mentioned paste may be injected into the edge of the shell 11 using this matrix and polymerized and hardened.

Next, as in the conventional case, a face plate 8 made of hard synthetic resin such as acrylic resin as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 is adhesively bonded to the shell 11 so as to close the opening of the shell 11. That is, the face plate 8 is attached to the end surface of the polymer formed at the edge of the shell 11.
and bonding is performed using an appropriate means such as adhesive or high-frequency processing. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing this state.

After the shell 11 and face plate 8 are adhesively bonded together, the excess portion of the face plate 8 protruding from the shell 11 is cut off, and the joint is polished to create a custom ear insert as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5. The molded hearing aid is completed.

In the above embodiment, the polymer 12 is formed on the edge end surface 11A of the shell 11, and then the face plate 8 is bonded.
The shell 11 and the face plate 8 may be directly adhesively bonded to each other via the above-mentioned paste without forming the polymer 12 on the shell 1A. In this way, the shell 11 and the face plate 8 are firmly connected via the polymer. However, when the shell 11 and the face plate 8 are joined together, the paste that has not yet been polymerized and hardened protrudes into and out of the shell 11, which may particularly cause damage to internal components. Also, heating to promote polymerization may cause damage, deformation, deterioration, etc. to the component.
Therefore, although there is an advantage in shortening the process, careful consideration is required.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, in the present invention, a face plate made of hard synthetic resin and a shell made of soft synthetic resin are adhesively bonded via a polymer made of acrylic resin and acrylic ester, so that a sufficiently strong bond can be achieved. It turns out. In this way, it is possible to provide an in-the-ear hearing aid that uses a shell made of soft synthetic resin. This hearing aid does not cause discomfort when worn in the ear, and can therefore be inserted deeply into the ear canal, making it possible to have a high-output hearing aid that prevents howling.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the shell. FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the face plate, and FIG. 3 is a side view. FIG. 4 is a side view showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a perspective view as well. FIG. 6 is a perspective view for explaining the manufacturing process, and FIG. 7 is also a side view. 8: face plate, 11: shell, 12: polymer.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A face plate 8 made of hard synthetic resin such as acrylic resin and equipped with components such as a microphone, and made of soft synthetic resin such as vinyl chloride resin to fit the external ear and ear canal. This in-ear hearing aid is made by adhesively bonding a shell body 11 with a polymer 12 made of acrylic resin powder and acrylic ester monomer.