Back to results
US 6,484,842 B1Granted
Custom-molded ear-plug, and process for producing a custom-molded ear-plug device
AssigneePhonak AG
InventorsChristoph Widmer, Hans Hessel, Markus Weidmann
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A hearing aid device and process for its manufacture, updating, and/or repair including a resilient outer shell and one or more internal units, with the outer shell conforming in shape to at least one of the internal units so that the internal unit is held snugly in place. The outer shell can be replaced using either a destructive or non-destructive disassembly method to re-use at least one of the internal units.
Claims12
A customized hearing device comprising:
- a hearing module including at least two discrete subunits;
- a shell defining a customized outer shape of said device, said shell including said hearing module, and a part of elastic material with an insertion opening;
- wherein at least one of said discrete subunits is introduced into said shell through said insertion opening only by stretching said part of elastic material, said at least one subunit being held within said shell by a holding arrangement which comprises said part of elastic material collapsing back substantially to its original shape.
A method for manufacturing a customized hearing device, comprising the steps of:
- customizing the outer-shape of a shell, said shell having a part of elastic material with an insertion opening;
- spreading said insertion opening and introducing at least one unit of said hearing device into said shell through said spread insertion opening;
- releasing said elastic part to allow said part with said insertion opening to collapse substantially to its original shape, thereby securing said unit within said shell.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.