JP2837642B2 - Manufacturing method for hearing aid shells - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a hearing aid shell or ear-shaped earplug from an ear shape collected using an impression material, or a hearing aid shell for producing an ear mold.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Hearing aids are continually becoming smaller in size, and at present, so-called custom hearing aids having a shell conforming to the shape of each individual ear canal and its surroundings have become widely used worldwide. Conventionally, as a method of manufacturing such a shell, first, as shown in FIG. 3, an ear canal 100 of each individual and its surrounding ear shape 100 are collected using an impression material. Next, the collected ear shape 100 is sent to a hearing aid maker by transportation such as mail or courier. Then, in the hearing aid manufacturer, the ear shape 1
00 is manually processed into a processed ear 101, and a mother die 102 is manufactured by molding. Further, it is known that a shell 103 before processing is formed based on the matrix 102, and the shell 103 before processing is processed to produce a shell 104 for a hearing aid, an earplug or an ear mold. Note that a hearing aid is made based on a shell made by this manufacturer.

[0003]

In the prior art, since the manufacture of a hearing aid shell, earplugs or ear molds is all performed manually, the quality and man-hours of the product are reduced by the operator. There has been a problem that the quality and the number of man-hours vary greatly depending on the skill level. Further, since numerical data such as dimensions of a finished product is not stored, there is a problem that reproducibility is not obtained when the same product is remanufactured.

[0004] The present invention has been made in view of such problems of the prior art, and its object is to improve quality and reduce man-hours without depending on the skill level of workers. It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing a hearing aid shell or the like having good reproducibility when remanufacturing.

[0005]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, according to the present invention, an ear shape is collected by using an impression material, and the collected ear shape is measured by a three-dimensional shape measuring device. Based on the numerical information of the ear shape obtained by the device, a stereolithography device is used to directly produce a hearing aid shell or an earplug or an ear mold.

The numerical information of the ear shape and the numerical information of the parts to be incorporated in the hearing aid shell or earplug or ear mold are processed by a computer to determine the size and shape of the hearing aid shell. It is.

[0007] In addition, numerical information on the size and shape of the hearing aid shell or earplug or earmold is stored in a database, and the hearing aid shell or earplug or earmold is remanufactured. It is good to use it.

Further, the numerical information of the ear shape may be transmitted to the hearing aid shell or ear-shaped earplugs or an ear mold manufacturing department by communication means.

[0009]

The ear shape of each individual is collected by the impression material, and the collected ear shape is measured by the three-dimensional shape measuring device. Next, the numerical information of the ear shape measured by the three-dimensional shape measuring device and the numerical information of the parts to be incorporated in the hearing aid shell are processed by a computer to determine the size and shape of the hearing aid shell. Furthermore, based on the determined hearing aid shell or earplug, or a hearing aid shell or earplug, using an optical shaping device based on the numerical information of the size and shape of the earmold,
Alternatively, an ear mold is manufactured.

When the location of the three-dimensional shape measuring device is different from the location of the manufacturer such as a hearing aid shell, numerical information of the ear shape measured by the three-dimensional shape measuring device is transmitted to the manufacturer by the communication means.

[0011]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Here, FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of a manufacturing process showing a method of manufacturing a hearing aid shell or the like according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a manufacturing apparatus for implementing the method of manufacturing a hearing aid shell or the like according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, a method of manufacturing a hearing aid shell or the like is as follows. First, a hearing aid shell manufactured is made of a viscoplastic material in order to fit the individual ear canal, or the ear canal and the ear shell. Inject the liquid or putty-like resin into the ear canal,
The ear form 1 is collected by solidification in the ear canal (step A). The place where the ear shape 1 is collected is a hospital, a hearing aid store, or the like.

Next, the shape of the collected ear shape 1 is measured by the three-dimensional shape measuring device 2 to obtain numerical data of the three-dimensional shape (step B). The place where the three-dimensional shape measuring device 2 is installed may be the same as that of the manufacturer of the hearing aid shell,
It may be a hospital or a hearing aid retailer that collects the blood.

When installed in a hospital or a hearing aid store, the measured three-dimensional numerical data can be transmitted to a manufacturer of a hearing aid shell using a communication means such as a wired or wireless communication. Transmitting the numerical data by the communication means is more advantageous in terms of time than sending the ear shape 1 to a maker of the hearing aid shell by means of transportation such as mail or courier, and shortens the manufacturing time of the hearing aid shell. .

Next, the three-dimensional numerical data of the ear shape 1 is input to the computer 3 and processed and automatically produced by the computer 3 together with the three-dimensional numerical data of components to be incorporated in the hearing aid shell, for example, a microphone, an earphone, and the like. The size and shape of the hearing aid shell to be performed are determined (step C). Further, the determined three-dimensional numerical data of the hearing aid shell is stored as the database 4 (step D).

Next, the three-dimensional numerical data of the determined hearing aid shell is input to the optical shaping device 5 (step E). Then, the hearing aid shell 6 is automatically manufactured by a stereolithography method (step F). In addition, even when the hearing aid shell 6 is remanufactured, it can be manufactured with high reproducibility by using the three-dimensional numerical data stored as the database 4.

As described above, since the hearing aid shell 6 is directly manufactured based on the numerical data measured by the three-dimensional shape measuring device 2, the quality is made uniform without being affected by the skill of the operator. You. In addition, the finished dimension when the hearing aid shell 6 is made slightly smaller or larger according to the order of the user can be adjusted to a desired value by arbitrarily processing the numerical data of the user's ear shape 1. Will be possible.

Further, by statistically processing a large number of three-dimensional numerical data stored as the database 4, characteristics such as the general size and shape of the hearing aid shell 6 can be grasped, and the research and development of hearing aids or hearing aid parts can be performed. Data can be collected for development.

In this embodiment, the case where the shell 6 for the hearing aid is manufactured has been described. However, the present invention can be applied to the manufacture of an earplug or an ear mold for a hearing aid. Of course it plays.

[0020]

As described above, according to the present invention, the shape of a collected ear shape is measured by a three-dimensional shape measuring device, and the size and shape of a hearing aid shell or the like are determined by using numerical information obtained by the measurement. Is automatically determined by the stereolithography machine based on the numerical information of the determined hearing aid shell, etc., eliminating the need for manual processing and making it possible to produce high quality products in a short time. . Further, by making the numerical information of the ear shape into a database, it becomes possible to manufacture products of the same shape with good reproducibility.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory view of a manufacturing process showing a method of manufacturing a shell for a hearing aid and the like according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a manufacturing apparatus for implementing a method of manufacturing a hearing aid shell or the like according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing a procedure of a conventional method for manufacturing a hearing aid shell.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Ear shape, 2 ... Three-dimensional shape measuring device, 3 ... Computer, 4 ... Database, 5 ... Stereolithography device, 6 ... Hearing aid shell, A, B, C, D, E, F ... Manufacturing process.

Claims (4)

(57) [Claims] 1. An ear shape is collected using an impression material, and the collected ear shape is measured by a three-dimensional shape measuring device, and light is obtained based on numerical information of the ear shape obtained by the three-dimensional shape measuring device. A method for manufacturing a shell for a hearing aid or the like, wherein a shell for a hearing aid or an earplug or an ear mold is directly manufactured by a shaping apparatus. 2. The computer performs arithmetic processing on the numerical information of the ear shape and the numerical information of components to be incorporated in the hearing aid shell, and determines the size and shape of the hearing aid shell or earplug or earmold. A method for manufacturing a hearing aid shell or the like according to claim 1. 3. A database for storing numerical information of the size and shape of the hearing aid shell or earplug or earmold, and storing the database therein, wherein the hearing aid shell or earplug,
3. The method for manufacturing a hearing aid shell or the like according to claim 1, wherein the method is used for remanufacturing an ear mold. 4. The numerical information of the ear shape is communicated by communication means.
4. The method for manufacturing a hearing aid shell or the like according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the method is transmitted to a production department of the hearing aid shell or ear-shaped earplug or an ear mold.