JPS61126900A - Put behind ear type hearing aid - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To design a strong binding by composing a face plate with such hardened synthetic resin as acrylic resin, by composing a shell with such a soft synthetic resin as vinyl chloride to fit to the external ear and the external auditory miatus, and combining stickily the face plate wit the shell as a double combination. CONSTITUTION:A shell 11 at a degree of 1-2m/m thick is formed by a mold from an impression pattern of the external ear and the external auditory miatus. The shell 11 is composed of such a soft synthetic resin as vinyl chloride, and the powder of acrylic resin and acrylic ester monomer, preferably paste like one mixed with methyl meta acrylic methyl ester are heaped up on the edge 11A in accordance with thickness of the shell 11. The edge is formed flatly to be hardened by polymerization. Thus, a sufficient and strong binding can be designed because the face plate consisting of the hardened synthetic resin as combined stickily with the shell consisting of soft synthetic resin through a polymer composed of acrylic resin and acrylic ester.

Description

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

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, it is not always possible to obtain a tight fit when wearing the ear sensor, and therefore it is easy to fall off, and it is 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 hearing aid into the ear-shaped 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 overall weight of the hearing aid increases, making it uncomfortable. Not suitable for installation,
In fact, this method has not been adopted.

By the way, custom in-the-ear hearing aids have been proposed based on the above technical background, and because they fit perfectly into the external ear and external auditory canal, they are difficult to fall out and are unobtrusive, 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 15 mm is made by pouring a polymeric resin as shown in FIG. Components such as an earphone 2, a microphone 3, an amplifier 4, a battery case 5, a volume adjustment switch 6, a gain adjuster 7, etc. shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 were attached so as to close the opening of the shell 1. A face plate 8 made of hard synthetic resin such as acrylic resin is adhesively bonded. Note that both are made of the same material and have good adhesive properties. The excess 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 it is hard, when you talk or eat while wearing it in your ear, the movement of your muscles and jaw puts pressure on your ear canal, which not only causes discomfort, but can also cause pain for some people. . 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 needs to be made of hard synthetic resin in order to stably hold each component.

By the way, the shell made of soft synthetic resin and the face plate made of hard synthetic resin can only be adhesively bonded to both.

Therefore, there is a problem in 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 present applicant has already filed two applications (Japanese Patent Application No. J59-032770,
Utility Application No. 59-070510).

[Purpose of the invention]

SUMMARY 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 phyclophone 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
They are adhesively bonded via a polymer consisting of acrylic resin powder and acrylic ester monomer.

〔Example〕

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

In FIGS. 4 and 5, reference numeral 11 is a soft synthetic resin such as vinyl chloride resin or silicone resin, and the wall thickness is 1r/1. It is a shell of about rL. 12
is a polymer made of acrylic resin and acrylic ester formed on the edge end face of the shell 11. 13 is an acrylic resin with components such as a microphone attached, AB
The face plate is made of hard synthetic resin such as No. 8 resin.

Next, the manufacturing method will be described.

First, as shown in FIG. 1, a shell 11 having a wall thickness of approximately 1 to 2% is molded using a matrix made from an impression mold 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. There is no difference in the production of this shell from conventional methods.

Next, a paste mixture of acrylic resin powder and an acrylic ester monomer, preferably a methyl methacrylic methyl ester monomer, is applied to the edge end surface 11A of the shell 11 to a height of 1%. For example, the shells 11 are arranged to have a width of about 2rAL, that is, they are arranged so as to extend the edge of the shell 11, 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 other words, a paste-like mixture of polymers and monomers is polymerized and cured to form stable entanglements, or I P N (Interpenetrate
ing Polymer Network (interpenetrating polymer network) is a method of synthesis in which it is firmly bonded to a soft shell.

This is because mounting on the edge end surface 11A of the shell 11 is easy. Therefore, the acrylic resin powder and the acrylic ester monomer are mixed until they form 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 attached to the shell 1.
The shell body 11 is adhesively bonded to the shell body 11 so as to close the opening of the shell body 11. That is, on the end face of the polymer formed at the edge of the shell 11,
The face plates 8 are joined together using an appropriate means such as adhesive or high frequency processing. FIG. 7 is a diagram showing this state.

After the shell 11 and the face plate 8 are bonded together as described above, the excess portion of the face plate 8 protruding from the shell 11 is cut off and the joint is polished.
The custom in-ear hearing aid shown in the figure 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 spray is bonded. However, the polymer 12 is formed on the edge end surface 11A of the shell 11 in advance. Alternatively, the shell 11 and the face plate 8 may be directly adhesively bonded together using the above-mentioned paste. 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 unpolymerized and uncured paste may spill out into and out of the shell 11, which may particularly damage 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 device that prevents howling.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

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. Special application filed Rion Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

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