Negative Poisson's ratio materials for ear plugs and mouth guards
OwnerJoon Bu Parkinventor
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An ear plug includes an elongated body sized and shaped to be partially inserted into an ear canal of a wearer, in which the body includes a negative Poisson's ratio (NPR) polymer foam material having a Poisson's ratio of between 0 and −1. A mouth guard includes an arc-shaped element sized to be received into a mouth of a wearer. The arc-shaped element has an outer wall, an inner wall, and a biting wall connecting the outer wall and the inner wall. The outer wall, the inner wall, and the biting wall define a channel that is sized to receive upper teeth of the wearer or lower teeth of the wearer. The outer wall, the biting wall, or both includes a negative Poisson's ratio (NPR) material having a Poisson's ratio between 0 and −1.
Claims13
An ear plug comprising:
- an elongated body sized and shaped to be partially inserted into an ear canal of a wearer, the elongated body having a largest diameter of about 9 mm to about 15 mm, the elongated body comprising:
- an inner layer comprising a polydisperse and disordered negative Poisson's ratio (NPR) polymer foam material having a Poisson's ratio of between 0 and −1, wherein the NPR polymer foam material is composed of a cellular structure having a characteristic dimension of between 0.1 μm and 3 mm, the inner layer comprising an NPR-PPR composite material, wherein the NPR-PPR composite material comprises a matrix composite including a matrix phase of the NPR polymer foam material with fibers or particles of a positive Poisson's ratio (PPR) material, and
- an outer layer at least partially surrounding the inner layer, the outer layer comprising a PPR material having a lower coefficient of friction with respect to the ear canal of the wearer than the NPR polymer foam material.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.