Pressure regulating earplug
AssigneeHoward Leight Industries, LLC
InventorsThomas W. Fleming, Bill Nyugen, John A. Jenkins JR.
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An earplug is provided for use by an airplane passenger, which more slowly increases the pressure of air in the passenger's ear canal than the rate of increase in cabin air pressure as the airplane descends near the end of a flight. The earplug has a cavity (30) that is open to the front end (20) of the earplug, and with a restrictor (24) at the front end of the cavity that allows air to pass between the cavity and ear canal, and the cavity to collapse, only at a very slow rate. As the environmental air pressure increases near the end of a flight, the earplug is slowly compressed in diameter and compresses the cavity.
Claims16
A pressure regulating earplug which includes an elastomeric earplug body with a front portion for entering an ear canal and a rear portion for grasping by a person to pull the earplug out of the ear canal, said front portion having a front end and having a sealing part lying rearward of said front end and constructed to seal to the walls of the ear canal wherein:
- said earplug body has a cavity open only to said front end, said cavity being at least partially collapsible when air pressure around part of the cavity increases, and including a restrictor that allows but restricts the rate of flow of air from the cavity to the ear canal through said front end.
6 The earplug described in claim 1 wherein:
- said cavity, without said restrictor, has a volume of at least 190 mm3.
The earplug described in claim 6 wherein:
- said sealing part comprises a plurality of flanges, including a rearmost flange;
- said walls of said cavity have an average wall thickness rearward of said rearmost flange, which is no more than one fourth the outside diameter of said earplug along said cavity.
A pressure regulating earplug which includes an earplug body having a front portion for entering an ear canal and a rear portion for grasping by a person to pull the earplug out of the ear canal, said front portion having a front end and having a sealing portion constructed to seal to the walls of the ear canal, wherein:
- said earplug body has cavity walls forming a cavity, that is compressible and that has a front portion open to th ear canal;
- a restrictor lying in said cavity and resisting rapid collapse of the cavity so the cavity can be compressed only slowly.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.