Patent ID: 7875232

Claim:
A method to simultaneously create a detailed hearing aid outer housing shell and a negative cast for a hearing aid to be custom-fitted to a patient's ear canal, comprising the steps of: providing a 3D jet printer apparatus able to build a 3D part by injecting both a soft pliable material and a hard material substantially simultaneously with the soft pliable material serving as a support for the hard material; creating an impression of the patient's ear canal; scanning the ear canal impression to create an undetailed point cloud and creating a first 3D file for the negative cast from the undetailed point cloud; creating a detailed point cloud for the detailed hearing aid shell using the first 3D file and creating for the detailed hearing aid shell a second 3D file; merging the detailed hearing aid shell second 3D file with the negative cast first 3D file and creating a single merged 3D file containing both the negative cast and the detailed hearing aid shell; feeding the merged 3D file to the 3D jet printer apparatus to build the detailed hearing aid shell with the hard material and the combined negative cast substantially simultaneously with the soft material, the negative cast serving as a support for the hearing aid shell; removing the combined hearing aid shell and the negative cast from the printer apparatus and removing the shell from the negative cast without substantially permanently deforming the negative cast; and building the hearing aid using the hearing aid shell, and checking a quality of the hearing aid shell by fitting the shell into the negative cast.