Earpieces employing viscoelastic materials

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10623846-B2
Application number	US-201615370516-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 6, 2016
Priority date	Dec 6, 2016
Publication date	Apr 14, 2020
Grant date	Apr 14, 2020

Abstract

The disclosure is related to compositions including viscoelastic materials. The compositions are suitable for use in earpieces such as in-ear earpieces.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An earpiece, wherein the earpiece:
has a tip, retaining legs, a body, a channel, or a combination thereof made from a composition comprising one or more elastomers,
wherein the composition has a calculated low frequency modulus metric (M lf ) score of 0.5 to 1, a calculated high frequency modulus metric (M hf ) score of 0.5 to 1, and a glass transition temperature (T g ) of −25° C. to 30° C.,
wherein at least one of the one or more elastomers is polynorbornene, polyurethane, styrenic-based thermoplastic elastomer, butyl rubber, acrylic, thermoplastic vulcanizates, or nitrile rubber; and
wherein the composition comprises anti-oxidant, UV stabilizer, curatives, inhibitors, plasticizers, or fillers.

2. The earpiece of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the one or more elastomers is polynorbornene.

3. The earpiece of claim 2 , wherein the polynorbornene has a density of 0.8 to 1.2 kg/dm 3 , a hardness of 10 to 20 Shore A, and a tensile strength of 2 to 8 MPa.

4. The earpiece of claim 1 , wherein the T g is 5° C. to 30° C.

5. The earpiece of claim 1 , wherein the T g is 20° C. to 30° C.

6. The earpiece of claim 1 , wherein the T g is 5° C. to 25° C.

7. The earpiece of claim 1 , wherein the M hf is 0.7 to 1.

8. The earpiece of claim 1 , wherein the M lf is 0.7 to 1.

9. The earpiece of claim 1 , wherein the product of M hf and M lf is 0.5 to 1.

10. An earpiece, wherein the earpiece:
has a tip, retaining legs, a body, a channel, or a combination thereof made from a composition comprising polynorbornene, wherein the composition has a calculated low frequency modulus metric (M lf ) score of 0.7 to 1, a calculated high frequency modulus metric (M hf ) score of 0.7 to 1, and a T g at 10° C. to 30° C., and wherein the composition comprises anti-oxidant, UV stabilizer, curatives, inhibitors, plasticizers, or fillers.

11. An earpiece, wherein the earpiece:
has a tip, retaining legs, a body, a channel, or a combination thereof made from a composition comprising one or more elastomers,
wherein the composition has a storage modulus of 0.5 to 50 MPa at 25° C. and 1 Hz, a glassy modulus of greater than 400 MPa, and a T g at −25° C. to 30° C.,
wherein at least one of the one or more elastomers is polynorbornene, polyurethane, styrenic-based thermoplastic elastomer, butyl rubber, acrylic, thermoplastic vulcanizates, or nitrile rubber; and
wherein the composition comprises anti-oxidant, UV stabilizer, curatives, inhibitors, plasticizers, or fillers.

12. The earpiece of claim 11 , wherein at least one of the one or more elastomers is polynorbornene and the polynorbornene has a density of 0.8 to 1.2 kg/dm 3 , a hardness of 10 to 20 Shore A, and a tensile strength of 2 to 8 MPa.

13. The earpiece of claim 11 , wherein the composition comprises polynorbornene.

14. The earpiece of claim 11 , wherein the T g is 5° C. to 30° C.

15. The earpiece of claim 11 , wherein the T g is 20° C. to 30° C.

16. The earpiece of claim 11 , wherein the T g is 5° C. to 25° C.

17. An earpiece, wherein the earpiece:
has a tip, retaining legs, a body, a channel, or a combination thereof made from a composition comprising polynorbornene, wherein the composition has a calculated low frequency modulus metric (M lf ) score of 0.5 to 1, a calculated high frequency modulus metric (M hf ) score of 0.5 to 1, and a glass transition temperature (T g ) of −25° C. to 30° C.,
wherein the polynorbornene has a density of 0.8to 1.2kg/dm 3 , a hardness of 10 to 20 Shore A, and a tensile strength of 2 to 8 MPa, and
wherein the composition comprises anti-oxidant, UV stabilizer, curatives, inhibitors, plasticizers, or fillers.

Assignees

• Bose Corp

Inventors

• Dominijanni Andrew D
• Prevoir Shawn J
• Cheng Lei
• Struzik Ryan C
• Wallace Eric M
• Fehervari Agota F
• Mohd Aris Zarif Farhana

Classifications

• C08G2261/60

  Glass transition temperature · CPC title

• H04R1/105

  Earpiece supports, e.g. ear hooks (for stereophonic headphones H04R5/0335) · CPC title

• H04R2201/029

  Manufacturing aspects of enclosures transducers · CPC title

• C08G61/08

  of carbocyclic compounds containing one or more carbon-to-carbon double bonds in the ring · CPC title

• C08G2261/3324

  derived from norbornene · CPC title