Hearing Device Seal Modules for Customizable Fitting
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional extended wear hearing devices face challenges with seal sizing, leading to suboptimal insertion depth and acoustic feedback, requiring manufacturers to stock a wide variety of sizes, increasing costs and waste due to permanent seal attachment at the manufacturing site, which limits customization and flexibility.
Innovation Solution
A hearing device seal module featuring a tubular seal carrier with a resilient material and adjustable seal support regions, allowing for semi-permanent attachment of seals to the core, enabling easy sizing and replacement during fitting, reducing inventory needs and costs.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If seals are permanently secured to the core at the manufacturing site, then the hearing device can be produced efficiently, but fitting facilities must stock a large number of hearing devices in various sizes, increasing carrying costs and waste
Solution Approach 1:
The hearing device is divided into separable components: the core and the seal. The seal can be independently attached or detached from the core, allowing the seal to be customized separately from the core. This segmentation enables fitting facilities to stock fewer cores and only exchange seals to match patient requirements, reducing inventory variety while maintaining manufacturing efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The seal is extracted as a separate, removable component from the core. This allows the seal to be independently selected and attached based on patient-specific ear canal geometry, eliminating the need to stock multiple complete hearing devices in different sizes. The seal can be taken out and replaced without affecting the core device.
2Device complexity
If seals are permanently secured to the core at the manufacturing site, then the device structure is simplified, but the ability to provide customized seal combinations is eliminated
Solution Approach 1:
The seal attachment is made dynamic rather than static. The seal can be attached to the core when needed and removed when customization is required. This dynamic attachment mechanism maintains structural simplicity during normal use while enabling customization when the seal needs to be exchanged for a different size or configuration.
3Adaptability or versatility
If various mechanical interconnects such as locking mechanisms and threaded connectors are used to connect seals to cores, then the connection can be adjustable, but the devices become difficult to use given the small size of RIC hearing devices
Solution Approach 1:
The complex mechanical interconnects are extracted and replaced with a simpler attachment mechanism. The seal is directly attached to the core using a simplified method that does not require locking mechanisms or threaded connectors, making the device easier to use while still providing adjustable and removable capabilities for customization.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables fitting facilities to store fewer core units by providing a range of seal sizes in modules, reducing waste and carrying costs, while allowing for customized seal configurations and easy adaptation to patient needs.
Implementation Method 1
The seals 54 and 56 are frequently formed from a highly porous and highly compliant foam material (e.g., hydrophilic polyurethane foam), which conforms to the ear canal geometry by deflection and compression
Data Source
AI summary
A hearing device seal module having a tubular seal carrier formed from resilient material, defining a medial-lateral axis and a lumen configured for passage of the hearing device core, and including a seal support region with a first portion defining a first portion perimeter in a plane perpendicular to the medial-lateral axis and a second portion, lateral of the first portion, defining a second portion perimeter in a plane perpendicular to the medial-lateral axis that is less than the first portion perimeter when the seal support region is in an unstressed state, and a first seal secured to the first portion of the seal support region and extending outwardly therefrom.