Patent Publication Number: US-2020281773-A1

Title: Earplug with enhanced wearing comfortability

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 
     (a) Field of the Invention 
     The present invention relates to an earplug, and more particularly to an earplug that is inserted and worn inside a person&#39;s ear canal, and uses circulation of air to enhance comfortability when wearing. 
     (b) Description of the Prior Art 
     Earplugs are mainly used for placing inside a person&#39;s ear canal to completely cut off noise from entering the ear to achieve protection of the person&#39;s ear canal. 
     Commonly seen earplugs products mainly use an integral body formed from foam or silicone to produce a multi-disc umbrella shaped body that facilitates placement inside a person&#39;s ear canal to achieve a protection effect. However, after insertion into the ear canal for a long period of time, these types of earplug products easily result in discomfort in the person&#39;s ear canal, and is unable to satisfy various different types of ear canals. 
     Hence, presently, various different inflatable earplug products have appeared on the market, such as U.S. Patent No. 20090173353 or, U.S. Patent No. 2015282990, These types of inflatable ear protector products directly fill bags with air, however, after inflating, these types of inflatable ear protector products do not allow separate adjustment of the inflation state of the bags, which easily causes discomfort when wearing the ear protector. 
     U.S. Pat. No. 9,326,059 discloses another type of inflatable ear protector product, which is configured with a plurality of bags that are assembled and mutually connected using an encircling center method. When inflating the ear protector, the plurality of bags are concurrently inflated, however, during inflation, this type of inflatable ear protector product similarly disallows the separate adjustment of the inflation state of the plurality of bags, which not only easily causes discomfort when wearing the ear protector, but is also unsuitable for various different types of ear canals, and thus unable to satisfy various different ear canals, resulting in poor application effectiveness. 
     Accordingly, the technical problems the present invention intends to resolve and objectives thereof involves providing an earplug with enhanced wearing comfortability. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     The main object of the present invention lies in providing an earplug, and more particularly to an earplug that is inserted and worn inside a person&#39;s ear canal, and uses circulation of air to enhance comfortability when wearing. 
     In order to achieve the aforementioned object, an earplug with enhanced wearing comfortability of the present invention comprises a main guide body, a supporting stem, and a filler material provided with plasticity. The main guide body further comprises a guide portion, a compression portion that extends from the guide portion, and a stop portion that extends from the compression portion. A connecting cavity is provided inside the guide portion, a filling cavity is provided inside the compression portion, and an opening portion is provided inside the stop portion. The filling cavity interconnects the connecting cavity and the opening portion. The supporting stem is provided with a connecting section that enables embedding into the connecting cavity, an extended section that extends from the connecting section and is positioned inside the filling cavity, and a securing section that extends from the extended section and embeds within the opening portion. Moreover, the securing section is provided with an air passage, which enables air to circulate between the exterior of the main guide body and the interior of the filling cavity by passing through the air passage. The filler material fills the interior of the filling cavity to enable an air chamber that can contain air to form therein, thereby enabling air to enter the air chamber through the air passage for the compression portion to maintain its original state. Accordingly, when the compression portion is pressed and constricted, the compression portion compresses the air within the air chamber through the filler material, thereby expelling the air through the air passage and causing the compression portion to form a compressed state. After releasing the pressure on the compression portion, air enters the air chamber through the air passage and squeezes the filler material, which causes the compression portion to return to its original state from a compressed state. 
     In a second embodiment, the compression portion is further assembled from a first compression area connected to the guide portion and a second compression area that extends from the first compression area and is connected to the stop portion. 
     In the second embodiment, the filling cavity is further is assembled from a first filling cavity that is positioned inside the first compression area and a second filling cavity that is positioned inside the second compression area and connects with the air passage; moreover, the first filling cavity and the second filling cavity are interconnected. 
     In the second embodiment, the filler material fills the first filling cavity and a portion of the second filling cavity, and the air chamber is formed inside the second filling cavity. 
     In the embodiments, a mutually embedding structure is formed between the opening portion and the securing section. 
     In the embodiments, the embedding structure comprises a first embedding portion positioned at the opening portion and a second embedding portion positioned on the securing section and embedded into the first embedding portion. 
     In the embodiments, both the guide portion and the stop portion assume an umbrella form. 
     In the embodiments, the filler material is formed from silicone material. 
     In the embodiments, the supporting stem further comprises a holding section extending from the securing section to the outer side of the opening portion, and the holding section extends to the exterior of the main guide body. 
     The earplug of the present invention has the following advantages compared to the prior art: 
     When inserting the earplug into a person&#39;s ear canal, the compression portion compresses in accordance with changes in the shape of the person&#39;s ear canal, and the shape of the compression portion changes through air adjustment to achieve enhanced comfortability when wearing the earplug. 
     To enable a further understanding of said objectives and the technological methods of the invention herein, a brief description of the drawings is provided below followed by a detailed description of the preferred embodiments. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
         FIG. 1  is a cross-sectional schematic view of a first embodiment aspect of the present invention. 
         FIG. 2  is a three-dimensional view of a second embodiment aspect of the present invention. 
         FIG. 3  is planar schematic view of the second embodiment aspect of the present invention. 
         FIG. 4  is a cross-sectional schematic view of a first viewing angle of the second embodiment of the present invention. 
         FIG. 5  is a cross-sectional schematic view of a second viewing angle of the second embodiment aspect of the present invention. 
         FIG. 6  is a cross-sectional schematic view of a decomposed state of the first viewing angle of the second embodiment aspect of the present invention. 
         FIG. 7  is schematic view of the second embodiment of the present invention placed inside a person&#39;s ear canal. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS 
     Regarding the detailed content and structural means of present invention, please refer to the description of the diagrams as follows: 
     Referring to  FIG. 1 , which shows an earplug with enhanced wearing comfortability of the present invention, wherein an earplug  10  comprises a main guide body  20 , a supporting stem  30 , and a filler material  40 . 
     The main guide body  20  further comprises a guide portion  21 , a compression portion  22  that extends from the guide portion  21 , and a stop portion  23  that extends from the compression portion  22 , all arranged in an axial configuration. The exterior of the guide portion  21  assumes an umbrella form, and a connecting cavity  24  is provided inside the guide portion  21 . A filling cavity  25  is provided inside the compression portion  22 , the exterior of the stop portion  23  assumes an umbrella form, and an opening portion  26  is provided inside the stop portion  23 . The filling cavity  25  interconnects the connecting cavity  24  and the opening portion  26 . 
     The supporting stem  30  that extends along the same axial direction as the main guide body  20  is provided with a connecting section  31  that enables embedding into the connecting cavity  24 , an extended section  32  that extends from the connecting section  31  and is positioned inside the filling cavity  25 , and a securing section  33  that extends from the extended section  32  and embeds within the opening portion  26 . Moreover, the securing section  33  is provided with an air passage  34 , which enables air to pass therethrough (not shown in the drawing) and circulate between the exterior of the main guide body  20  and the interior of the filling cavity  25 . In addition, a holding section  35  further extends outward to the exterior of the main guide body  20  from the securing section  33 . 
     The filler material  40  is provided with plasticity and fills the interior of the filling cavity  25  to enable an air chamber  27  to form therein and contain air. Air can enter the air chamber  27  through the air passage  34  for the compression portion  22  to maintain an original state. 
     Referring further to  FIGS. 2 to 6 , which show a second embodiment aspect of the earplug  10 , and in this embodiment a compression portion  22 ′ further comprises a first compression area  221 ′ that extends from a guide portion  21 ′ and a second compression area  222 ′ that extends from the first compression area  221 ′. 
     The second compression area  222 ′ is connected to a stop portion  23 ′, and a filling cavity  25 ′ further comprises a first filling cavity  251 ′ that is positioned inside the first compression area  221 ′ and a second filling cavity  252 ′ that is positioned inside the second compression area  222 ′, wherein a passage cavity  253 ′ provides interconnection between the first filling cavity  251 ′ and the second filling cavity  252 ′. The diameter of the passage cavity  253 ′ is smaller than the diameters of both the first filling cavity  251 ′ and the second filling cavity  252 ′, and the diameter of the first filling cavity  251 ′ is slightly smaller than that of the second filling cavity  252 ′. The second filling cavity  252 ′ is connected to an opening portion  26 ′, and a filler material  40 ′ respectively fills the first filling cavity  251 ′, the passage cavity  253 ′, and the interior of the second filling cavity  252 ′. Moreover, an air chamber  27 ′ is positioned inside the second filling cavity  252 ′ and connects to an air passage  34 ′. 
     It is worth mentioning that the filler material  40 ′ in the second embodiment is formed from silicone material, and the silicone filler material  40 ′ is first heated to form a liquid, after which the liquid silicone material is injected into the interior of the main guide body  20 ′. It is important to explain that the liquid silicone material does not completely fill the interior of the second filling cavity  252 ′ when injecting the liquid silicone material into the interior of the main guide body  20 ′. After injecting the liquid silicone material, the supporting stem  30 ′ is disposed into the interior of the main guide body  20 ′ before the liquid silicone material has cooled down to enable inserting and embedding a connecting section  31 ′ of the supporting stem  30 ′ into a connecting cavity  24 ′ while enabling an extended section  32 ′ to extend into the filling cavity  25 ′. 
     In addition, an embedding structure  50  is further configured between a securing section  33 ′ and the opening portion  26 ′, wherein the embedding structure  50  comprises: a first embedding portion  51  positioned at the opening portion  26 ′ and a second embedding portion  52  positioned on the securing section  33 ′ and embedded into the first embedding portion  51 . Accordingly, when the supporting stem  30 ′ is disposed into the interior of the main guide body  20 ′, apart from embedding the connecting section  31 ′ into the connecting cavity  24 ′, the supporting stem  30 ′ is also embedded into the opening portion  26 ′ by means of the securing section  33 ′, thereby enabling the supporting stem  30 ′ to effectively embed into the main guide body  20 ′ and preventing separation from occurring between the supporting stem  30 ′ and the main guide body  20 ′. 
     After disposing the supporting stem  30 ′ into the interior of the main guide body  20 ′, a silicone material is caused to solidify inside the filling cavity  25 ′ and form the filler material  40 ′ using a cooling or photocuring method, which also causes the air chamber  27 ′ to form within the second filling cavity  252 ′, thereby enabling air to pass through the air passage  34 ′ on the supporting stem  30 ′ from the exterior of the main guide body  20 ′ and enter the air chamber  27 ′, which further enables the compression portion  22 ′ to maintain its original state. 
     Referring to  FIGS. 5 to 7 , when an earplug  10 ′ is inserted inside a person&#39;s ear canal  60 , it is of prime importance to first use the guide portion  21 ′ to enter the person&#39;s ear canal  60 , which is followed by the compression portion  22 ′ gradually coming into contact with the interior of the person&#39;s ear canal  60 , whereupon the ear wall presses against the compression portion  22 ′ causing deformation thereof and compression of the filler material  40 ′ within the filling cavity  25 ′. And because the filler material  40 ′ is provided with plasticity, thus, the filler material  40 ′ also deforms within the filling cavity  25 ′. After deforming, the filler material  40 ′ produces a pushing force toward the air chamber  27 ′ that squeezes and expels the air therein to the exterior of the main guide body  20 ′ through the air passage  34 ′, thereby causing the compression portion  22 ′ to form a compressed state and enabling the stop portion  23 ′ to block the entrance area of the person&#39;s ear canal  60 . Accordingly, apart from enabling the compression portion  22 ′ to produce a more favorable contact effect with the person&#39;s ear canal  60 , the earplug  10 ′ achieves better airtightness within the person&#39;s ear canal  60 . In addition, compression of the compression portion  22 ′ by the person&#39;s ear canal  60  compresses the filler material  40 ′, which then squeezes and expels the air out to effectively reduce the pressure within the earplug  10 ′, thereby enhancing comfortability when wearing the earplug  10 ′. 
     On the contrary, when the earplug  10 ′ is gradually separated from the person&#39;s ear canal  60 , the pressure produced by the ear wall on the compression portion  22 ′ also gradually decreases along with a correspondingly gradual decrease in the pushing force of the filler material  40 ′ on the air, at which time the pressure within the air chamber  27 ′ is less than the atmospheric pressure outside the person&#39;s ear canal  60 , which causes air to gradually enter the air chamber  27 ′ through the air passage  34 ′ and compress the filler material  40 ′ until the earplug  10 ′ is completely separated from the person&#39;s ear canal  60 , whereupon the filler material  40 ′ continues to be compressed by the air, causing the compression portion  22 ′ to return to its original state from a compressed state, thereby further providing the earplug  10 ′ with the effect of reusability and substantially extending the serviceable life thereof. 
     It is worth mentioning that it is of prime importance to hold a holding section  35 ′ of the supporting stem  30 ′ when inserting/extracting the earplug  10 ′ into/out of the person&#39;s ear canal  60  to ensure added convenience when carrying out insertion or extraction of the earplug  10 ′. 
     It is of course to be understood that the embodiments described herein is merely illustrative of the principles of the invention and that a wide variety of modifications thereto may be effected by persons skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the following claims.