Article
September 2003Hearing Aid Repair & Modification Using UV Materials
Part Two: Holes
in the Shell
I’ll never forget the day Ted, who worked in the
repair department, brought me that chewed-up full shell hearing aid. We
hadn’t been using UV technology very long - maybe a month, and we were
just beginning to experiment on some of the repairs, seeing how far we
could go with damaged shells. We were trying to get a feel for when a
damaged hearing aid shell should be repaired and when we should just
rebuild the unit with a new shell. Apparently, this particular hearing aid
had been attacked by the family dog. It had a jagged hole in the tragus
area approximately ¼” in diameter, and had several cracks spidering from
the hole in all directions.
It was amazing to me that we were even considering a
repair like this. A month ago, we would have been waiting for a new
impression, but not now. Not after having great initial success with this
miracle UV stuff. We were pushing the envelope on what we could and
couldn’t accomplish, and learning we were saving the most important
element of all – time.
First – Let’s start at the beginning.
Now when Ted brought
me that hearing aid, we were looking at patching a significant hole. It
took us a while with some trial and error to figure out a good process for
this – and we will get into that in a minute- but first, we need to take a
step back and look at something much easier – smaller holes.
Small holes and punctures are probably the easiest
fix, requiring very little in the expertise arena. All that is needed is
some UV patching material such as
Fotoplast-Gel or FotoPlast S/IO
shell material, a probe or toothpick, a UV
light source, an alcohol wipe, and a method for buffing and polishing.
Oh yeah, and you need to think about color.
Why is color so important?
The color you choose
for this project is ultimately going to reflect on the quality of your
work. If you are working on a right CIC and you use clear gel to patch a
hole, you are going to be able to see where the hole used to be. And the
bigger the patch, the more noticeable the used-to-be hole. In this case, a
red gel or shell material is going to blend real nice, making it look like
you sent the aid back to the factory.
I know - I know, you only want to inventory clear
material. You don’t want to have a tube of red or blue or any other color.
All I’m saying is for what it costs you are going to achieve much better
results if you match the shell color with your UV material - and you are
going to be much happier with the results.
Patching that small hole.
Now, Let’s get into it.
Take a small amount of the patch material you are
going to use with a probe or toothpick and swipe it over the hole in the
shell. Providing the hole isn’t too big, the shell material will fill the
hole completely. More on this in a moment. If this is the case, place the
unit under the UV light source with the UV material to be cured directly
under the lamps. Cure times will vary depending on UV material color,
light source used, lamp age, and proximity to the lamps. A general rule of
thumb, check it after a couple of minutes in a florescent unit, 15 seconds
under a spot cure unit. Some materials leave a sticky residue after
curing. This is called the smear layer and is caused be oxidation during
curing. This layer will need to be wiped off after curing with an alcohol
wipe. At this point, the unit is ready for buffing. Buff smooth, trying to
blend the patched area with the rest of the shell.
Now if the hole was a little too large and the
material didn’t quite fill the hole with one attempt, there are a couple
of little tricks you can use:
Little Trick 1) Cure the material that sticks to the
outer edges of the hole, making the hole diameter smaller. Then fill the
remainder hole and cure as above.
Little Trick 2) Using a probe or toothpick, drag some
material across the hole while curing under the UV lamps. Then patch the
hole as above.
OK, now how about that large hole.
The hole in the hearing aid that Ted brought me was bigger than
anything we had tried patching before. And none of the previously
described methods would work – the diameter was just too big. Someone
suggested using some kind of backing to hold the material in place so the
UV material wouldn’t fall through. And that’s when we discovered clear
Scotch tape.
We cut a piece of tape a little larger than the hole
and using tweezers, placed the tape inside the hole with the adhesive side
out. This allowed the tape to grab the inside wall of the shell, holding
itself in place. Then we were able to apply the UV material in several
steps, curing between each. After buffing, you couldn’t even tell there
used to be a hole there. It was amazing, and a lot faster than getting a
new shell.
What else can we do?
Part Three will cover the last segment of shell repair – cracks in the
shell.
|
Printer Friendly
Version
Related Links:
UV Equipment
UV Materials
UV Safety Glasses
Have you checked out our Factory
2nds? These are brand new pieces of equipment which have a cosmetic
imperfection or two, but work perfectly fine. Check out our
Factory 2nd page to learn more.
|
