JP2000350743A - Improved earplug for ear-hanging type hearing aid and manufacturing method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily and securely connect a hearing aid body and a earplug by forming the connecting part from a movable L-letter-form tube which is 360 degree rotatable in the circumferential direction of sound passage in an earplug for hearing aid which is connected to the hearing aid body through a connecting part protrudingly provided at the inlet of the sound passage. SOLUTION: In manufacturing an earplug for hearing aid, an earplug 5 which has an outer shape corresponding to external auditory meatus and in which an ear meatus is penetratingly provided near the central part is prepared, and a connecting part supporting groove is provided on it. Then, a joint member with a through hole 10 in the center is inserted into the connecting part supporting groove to join with the supporting groove. An L-letter-form tube 13 with a through hole 14 is fitted into the through hole 10 of the joint member to complete a desired earplug for hearing aid. Since the L-letter-form tube 13 and the joint member are composed of a material which has appropriate strength, elasticity and flexibility like silicone resin, the L-letter- form tube 13 can slide over 360 degrees in the circumferential direction of the sound passage. Namely, they can rotate while securely contacting the outer wall of the through hole.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an earplug for a hearing aid and, more particularly, to an improvement of an earplug in an over-the-ear type hearing aid.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A hearing aid used by a hearing-impaired person is generally called a completely tailor-made hearing aid, and is an ear-hole type hearing aid in which a hearing aid body and an earplug are integrated. And a pocket-type hearing aid to which an earplug is connected while the box-type hearing aid body is kept in a pocket. Of these, ear-hearing hearing aids are hardly noticeable to be worn, and because they achieve high output performance applicable to moderate to severe hearing loss, about 60% of hearing impaired people use it. I have.

[0003] Although ear-hearing hearing aids have been widely used in such a manner, there are many complaints from users of the hearing aids and also from sellers based on poor connection between the earplugs and the hearing aid body. FIG. 1 shows a state in which an over-the-ear hearing aid is worn. As can be understood from the figure, the earplug 1 (having an outer shape corresponding to the external auditory canal and having a sound passage passing through the center thereof) and the hearing aid main body 2 are provided so as to protrude outside the earplug. The connection is made via a hook (connection part) 3, and the conventional connection part is fixed and attached to an earplug.

Therefore, when an earplug manufacturing engineer attaches a hook (connecting portion) to an earplug, it is necessary to accurately determine the direction of the hole in the sound path of the earplug and the direction of attachment to the hearing aid body. Requires extremely skill. If you use the hook with the wrong angle, direction, and installation position,
Lifting of the hearing aid body (the hearing aid cannot be set up exactly behind the ear), lifting of the earplugs (the earplugs are pulled by the hooks of the hearing aids and do not fit completely in the ear canal, causing howling and causing sound leakage. )),
This has been a complaint by users and sellers. on the other hand,
Re-manufacturing earplugs to eliminate earplug connection failures results in a loss of technician effort, and for hearing-impaired people, adjustments and ear-molding are performed over and over again. That is very time consuming and painful. For this reason, the trust in the hearing aid itself is lost.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a means for eliminating the above-mentioned problems in an ear-hearing hearing aid and for easily and properly connecting the hearing aid body and earplugs. It is in.

[0006]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides an external auditory canal, which has an outer shape corresponding to the external auditory canal, and has a sound path penetrating near the center thereof. An earplug for a hearing aid adapted to be connected to a hearing aid main body through a connected portion, wherein the connected portion extends in the circumferential direction of the sound path.
An earplug for a hearing aid comprising a movable L-shaped tube capable of rotating by 60 degrees is provided.

The present invention further relates to a method for manufacturing such an earplug for a hearing aid according to the present invention, which comprises: (1) an earplug having an outer shape corresponding to the external auditory canal and having a sound path substantially penetrated substantially in the center. (2) Cutting around the entrance of the sound path to drill a connecting part support groove
After inserting a joint member having a through hole in the center into the support groove so that the through hole communicates with the sound path of the earplug, an adhesive is filled between the support member and the joint member. And (3) fitting an L-shaped tube into the through hole of the joint member so that the L-shaped tube can slide around the through hole.

[0008]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS While conventional earplugs for hearing aids have a fixed connection with the main body of the hearing aid, the earplugs for hearing aids of the present invention are simple, for example, by utilizing off-the-shelf earplugs. The connecting part to the hearing aid body is made movable by a simple method. Hereinafter, in order to facilitate understanding, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings showing each manufacturing process of the earplug for a hearing aid of the present invention.

[0009]Drilling of connection support groove  In producing the earplug for a hearing aid of the present invention, first,
As shown in Fig. 2 (A), it has an external shape corresponding to the ear canal.
Then, an earplug 5 having a sound path 4 penetrated near the center is prepared.
A connecting portion support groove is provided in this as described later. prepare
Earplugs, if any, should be used. new
If they are to be manufactured, the ears of the user should be
It was prepared by injecting and curing an appropriate ear mold material and molding it.
Gypsum cast into ear impression (ear mold)
Inject the ear mold material into this gypsum mold and cure
In the earplugs (ear mold) obtained
Drill a hole near the center according to the conventional technique and penetrate the sound path
You. In preparing the ear impression,
Another patent application by the writer "ear impression for hearing aids"
Production method ”(Japanese Patent Application No. 11-164622).
The use of a circular casting method is particularly suitable for the ear canal of the hearing aid user.
A combined earplug (earmould) can be obtained.

Next, the sound path around the entrance of the earplug 4 (the so-called middle part between the tragus and the ring of the ear ring) having the outer shape corresponding to the external auditory canal and having the sound path penetrated substantially in the center as described above. The groove 6 is provided by cutting in the direction. The groove 6 supports a connecting portion between the earplug and the hearing aid body as described later. In general, the connecting portion supporting groove 6 has a diameter (D) of about 1 cm and a depth (L) of about 0.8 mm to 1 cm [(B) of FIG.
And (C)].

[0011]Joining joint members  Next, a through hole is formed in the center in the connection portion support groove as described above.
Is inserted, and the joint member is supported.
Join the holding grooves. Provided in the center of this joint member
The L-shaped tube is inserted into the through hole as described later.
To slide around the hole (rotate in contact).
You. Therefore, the joint member and the L-shaped tube
Has elasticity and flexibility (flexibility) with appropriate strength
It is necessary to be composed of materials. Suitable for this purpose
A more preferred material is a silicone resin.

Thus, in manufacturing the earplug for a hearing aid according to the present invention, the tip of a commercially available off-the-shelf silicone resin earplug 7 (see FIG. 3A) is cut, Only the rear end portion 8 (FIG. 3B) can be used as a joint member. In this case, it is preferable to dig a V-shaped groove 9 on the outer surface of the joint member 8 using, for example, a chisel. As will be described later, the groove 9 is used to allow an adhesive to enter into the groove 9 to strengthen the connection with the earplug main body (connecting portion support groove).
It is preferable to dig more than this. Although this joint member can be easily manufactured by utilizing a ready-made product in this way, it is of course possible to newly manufacture the joint member.

As a joint member, in addition to a cylindrical small piece 8 having a through hole 10 as shown in FIG. 3 and a V-shaped groove 9 dug around, a through hole 10 as shown in FIG. A frusto-conical small piece 11 having the same can also be used. This embodiment is preferable because it can be easily manufactured even when it is difficult to cut a V-shaped groove because the joint member is too small. The tapered shape from the back of the earplug toward the entrance makes it easy to insert the adhesive, and there is no fear that it will come off even if a groove is not formed in the bonding surface because the inside has a dovetail shape. The joint member 11 of this embodiment can also be easily manufactured by cutting off a ready-made earplug, or may be newly manufactured.

The above joint member (8 or 1)
1) is then inserted into the connecting portion supporting groove 6, and at this time, the positional relationship is established such that the through hole 10 of the joint member and the sound path 4 of the earplug communicate with each other. Thereafter, an adhesive is filled between the joint member and the connection portion support groove, and the joint member and the connection portion support groove are joined (see FIG. 3D and FIG. 4B).

An acrylate resin such as MMA (methyl methacrylate) is generally used for the earplug body 5, and a silicone resin may be used for a part thereof. On the other hand, the material of the joint member is preferably a silicone resin as described above. Therefore,
The preferred adhesive for joining such earplugs (specifically, the connecting portion support groove) and the joint member is an ultra-fast-setting room-temperature-polymerized acrylic resin used as a dental adhesive, or currently widely used. Cyanoacrylate-based instant adhesive. For example, the former is commercially available from “GC Corporation” under the trade name “Unifast II Clear”.

When joining the joint member to the earplug main body (connecting portion support groove), care must be taken that the adhesive does not block the sound path 4 of the earplug. The instant adhesive is liquid and has high fluidity, and an adhesive effect can be expected. However, special attention is required because the fluidity may cause the adhesive to enter the sound path and block the entire sound path. On the other hand, the quick-setting resin promotes curing by mixing the powder and the liquid, and is easy to operate because it has to be applied around the joint at the time of bonding because it is a paste-like solid. The use of the quick-setting resin and the instant adhesive has an advantage that the production time can be shortened because both require only about 5 minutes for the curing time, and the joint can be easily filled.

[0017]L-shaped tube fitting  When the joining of the joint members (8, 11) is completed, FIG.
L-shaped tube having a through hole 14 as shown in FIG.
If the valve 13 is fitted into the conduction hole 10 of the joint member,
The desired earplug for a hearing aid is completed (see FIG. 5B). This
Here, as described above, the L-shaped tube and the joint
The material is elastic with appropriate strength like silicone resin
And flexible (flexible) material,
The L-shaped tube 13 is arranged in the circumferential direction of the sound path [arrow in FIG.
Mark direction] 360 degrees, that is, on the outer wall of the through hole
It can rotate with firm contact.

[0018]

As described above, the earplug for a hearing aid of the present invention uses an L-shaped tube that can be rotated 360 degrees instead of a conventional fixed type as a connecting portion with a hearing aid body. The direction of connection with the hearing aid body can be freely selected. As a result, various obstacles caused by poor connection at the time of setting (setting) a hearing aid such as conventional earplugs for hearing aids, in particular, discomfort for the hearing aid user due to the lifting of the hearing aid body, and sound due to the lifting of the earplug itself. (Howling) phenomenon can be prevented. Furthermore, the earplugs for hearing aids of the present invention are very simple to manufacture, do not require special skills, and can be manufactured using existing manufacturing techniques. In addition, a commercially available L-shaped tube joint can be used as it is, and it can be manufactured at low cost.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 shows a wearing state of an over-the-ear hearing aid that is frequently used as a hearing aid.

FIG. 2 shows a state in which a connecting portion supporting groove of the earplug for a hearing aid of the present invention is formed.

FIG. 3 shows a joint member of an earplug for a hearing aid of the present invention and a state in which the joint member is joined to an earplug body.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the joint member of the earplug for a hearing aid of the present invention and a state in which the joint member is joined to the earplug body.

FIG. 5 shows an L-shaped tube of an earplug for a hearing aid of the present invention and a state in which the tube is fitted to an earplug main body.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 4 sound path 5 earplug main body 6 connection part support groove 8 joint member 10 through hole 11 joint member 12 adhesive 13 L-shaped tube

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A hearing aid having an outer shape corresponding to the ear canal, a sound path penetrating near the center, and being connected to the hearing aid main body through a connecting part protruding from an entrance of the sound path. An earplug for a hearing aid, wherein the connecting part comprises a movable L-shaped tube rotatable 360 degrees in a circumferential direction of a sound path. 2. The method of manufacturing an earplug for a hearing aid according to claim 1, wherein: (1) around the entrance of the earplug having an outer shape corresponding to the external auditory canal and having a substantially centrally arranged sound passage. And (2) inserting a joint member having a through hole in the center into the support groove so that the through hole communicates with the sound path of the earplug. The joint member is filled with an adhesive between the support grooves and bonded together. (3) An L-shaped tube is fitted into the through hole of the joint member and an L-shaped tube is formed along the periphery of the through hole. The method comprises the step of allowing the to slide.