Synthetic resins or natural rubbers -- part of the class 520 ser – Synthetic resins – Mixing of two or more solid polymers; mixing of solid...
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-21
2002-12-31
Seidleck, James J. (Department: 1711)
Synthetic resins or natural rubbers -- part of the class 520 ser
Synthetic resins
Mixing of two or more solid polymers; mixing of solid...
C525S032000, C525S069000, C525S262000, C525S263000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06500902
ABSTRACT:
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a fitting composition for a body-worn tool to be used in contact with skin, a body-worn tool produced by using the fitting composition, and a method of producing the body-worn tool. More particularly, the invention relates to a fitting composition capable of fitting a body-worn tool to be used in contact with skin, such as spectacles, a hearing aid, and an artificial limb, suitably to the body shape of individual wearer and thereby realizing the function of the body-worn tool in a steady state, as well as providing an excellent wear-feeling. The present invention also provides a body-worn tool to be used in contact with skin, which is produced by using the fitting composition and a method of producing the body-worn tool. The fitting composition of the invention has generally a paste form and is excellent in the handling, and thus it is possible to produce a part directly by subjecting the composition to a wearer to whom the tool is attached and hardening the composition through polymerization. Alternatively, the molded article (hardened product) can also be formed extremely easily to a desired shape which fits the body shape of a wearer by hardening the composition through polymerization using a mold prepared beforehand with modeling the body shape.
BACKGROUND ART
Since body-worn tools such as a hearing aid, spectacles, and an artificial limb are directly attached to the bodies of individual wearers, stability at the wear, sufficient realization of the function of the tools, and good wear-feeling without sense of discomfort are required. For example, a hearing aid is an apparatus for helping hearing ability which is decreased owing to conductive disorder caused by tympanitis or tympanic damage, perceptive disorder caused by the disorder of perceptive organs such as inner ear, or mixed deafness complicated by these symptoms. The types of the hearing aid include an ear-hole type, an ear-hanging type, a pocket type, and a spectacle type.
Among them, the ear-hole type hearing aid has widely used in recent years since it has an excellent characteristics that it can be included in the ear hole of a wearer and thus is compact and inconspicuous, as well as it provides natural hearings. As the methods for producing the ear-hole type hearing aid, the following methods (1) and (2) are hitherto known, for example.
(1) A method for completing the production of a hearing aid comprising the steps of making a cast of the ear hole of a wearer by inserting a silicone putty material or the like into the ear hole; preparing a female mold having an ear hole-shape cavity by applying agar, gypsum, or other molding material to the outer surface of the cast and solidifying the material; forming a wall by applying a thermally fusible material to the inner surface of the female mold at a predetermined thickness and solidifying the material; forming an intermediate by filling the inside of the solidified wall of the thermally fusible material with a resin and solidifying or hardening the resin, removing the wall made of the thermally fusible material applied between the female mold and the intermediate; preparing a shell for the hearing aid by introducing a soft resin such as plasticized polyvinyl chloride resin into the cavity for forming the shell formed by the removal of the wall between the female mold and the intermediate and solidifying the resin; installing a hardware circuit board for the hearing aid inside the shell; and adjusting the shape (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 296900/1986).
(2) A method for completing the production of a hearing aid comprising the steps of making a cast of the ear hole of a wearer by inserting a silicone putty material or the like into the ear hole; preparing a female mold having an ear hole-shape cavity by applying a light-transparent resin material to the outer surface of the cast and solidifying the material; preparing a shell for the hearing aid having a predetermined thickness by introducing a acrylic photosetting resin material into the inner surface of the female mold and hardening the photosetting resin material through irradiation with a light from the outside of the female mold; installing a hardware circuit board for the hearing aid inside the shell; and adjusting the shape (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 130697/1993).
The hearing aid having a shell made of plasticized vinyl chloride resin prepared by the above method (1) is soft to the ear hole owing to the softness of the material, but its fitness to the ear hole is not accurate and its deformation is easy. Therefore, it has problems that it easily loosens and comes off the ear hole during its use and howling (acoustic feedback) tends to occur owing to acoustic leakage. Thus, the hearing aid is disadvantageous that, at every time when such problems occur, the shape of the shell should be adjusted or the implanted position of the hardware circuit board of the hearing aid should be controlled after opening of the shell. Further, in the case that such adjustment does not solve the howling problem, it is necessary to lower the output of the hearing aid hardware in order to prevent the acoustic leakage. However, when the output of the hearing aid hardware is lowered, performance of the hearing aid decreases, and sometimes, it becomes impossible to enhance the hearing ability as the wearer desires. Also, the hearing aid prepared by the above method (2) is hard and is difficult to fit well to t he ear hole of the wearer, and has inferior wear-feeling because the shell is made of a photo-cured acrylic resin Furthermore, it is disadvantageous that it easily comes off the ear hole during its use and howling tends to occur owing to acoustic leakage. Therefore, it is also necessary for this hearing aid to adjust the shape of the shell or to control the implanted position of the hardware circuit board of the hearing aid in the shell. In the case that such adjustment does not solve the howling problem, it becomes necessary to lower the output of the hearing aid hardware, whereby the hearing aid ma y not fulfill its function.
Moreover, for the purpose of preventing slippage of spectacles and maintaining the lenses a t the optimum position for correcting eyesight, fitting members are generally attached to the nose-fitting part of spectacles or ear-hanging part of the bows. However, conventional fitting members attached to spectacles have defects that the spectacles tend to slip or come off since the members are generally hard and difficult to fit to the body(face) of a wearer. When the spectacles slip out of the proper position, it becomes difficult to maintain the lenses at the optimum position, so that eyesight is not sufficiently corrected and, in some case, eye fatigue, headache, further decrease of eyesight, and the like may occur. Furthermore, in other body-worn tools such as an artificial limb, inadequate fitting of the limb to the body parts to which the tools are attached may realize insufficient function of the limb, and may give physical pain in some cases.
Object of the invention is to provide a fitting composition capable of fitting a body-worn tool to be used in contact with skin, such as spectacles, a hearing aid, and an artificial limb, suitably to the body shape of individual wearer without slippage at the body part or coming off the body part to which the tool is attached and thereby realizing sufficiently the original function of the body-worn tool in a steady state, as well as providing an excellent wear-feeling by absorbing many kinds of impact pressure generated. More specifically, in the case of use for a hearing aid, for example, object thereof is to provide a fitting composition capable of producing a hearing aid having a high fitting accuracy to ear hole or the like without coming off through loosening during the use or without occurrence of excessive deformation and with no occurrence of howling owing to acoustic leakage, and providing an excellent wear-feeling. In the case of use for spectacles, for example, it is to provide a fitting c
Hatanaka Kenji
Maeda Mizuho
Masuhara Eiichi
Yamaguchi Satoshi
Yamauchi Junichi
Asinovsky Olga
Kuraray Co. Ltd.
Seidleck James J.
LandOfFree
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