Microsonic Hears the Sound of Booming Growth
Hearing loss is the third most common affliction among Americans, behind arthritis and hypertension, according to the National Institutes of Health. With the oldest of the 78.2 million baby boomers turning 60 years old this year, Microsonic Inc. is poised for tremendous growth.
The Ambridge-based company has carved out a nice niche in the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) earpiece market, providing custom ear molds for hearing aids as well as swimmer’s and musician’s earplugs to other manufacturers. In the process, the 40-year-old company has grown to become one of the world’s largest ear mold laboratories.
Over the past half-century, hearing aid manufacturers have developed many new technologies to bring better sound quality, ever-smaller packaging and greater durability. “We’ve kept pace with the technological growth of the industry,” says Monika Major, president of Microsonic. “We’ve introduced quite a few new materials, styles and acoustic options. This allows our clients the most flexibility for innovation for their own products.”
Because comfort is the most important factor in the success of any device worn on or in the body, much of Microsonic’s research over the years has been in the area of plastics. “The precise shaping of the custom mold to the actual ear is a key physical requirement of comfort,” says Major. “Our processes focus on the accurate reproduction of the ear’s shape.”
Regularly Investing in New Technology
Operating a domestic manufacturing business in an age of overseas outsourcing isn’t easy, but Microsonic has stayed ahead of the competition by regularly investing in new technology to improve their products and processes. For example, the traditional process of manufacturing custom ear molds involves manual shaping and finishing. BFTP recently provided a $40,000 Innovation Adoption Grant to aid Microsonic in automating this core process.
“Our technicians are highly skilled at matching the shape of the ear mold to the shape of the ear, but no human can possibly be as precise as a computerized system,” says Major. “Our new rapid prototyping process produces an absolutely exact copy of the ear impression. This is then scanned into the system, minimizing the number of ear molds that are rejected by patients for fit issues.”
Catalyst for Improvement
While the BFTP grant is small relative to the total cost of the hardware required for the improved process and its adaptation into the Microsonic environment, Major says the funding was critical to the success of the process upgrade. “The grant was the catalyst that enabled the remainder of the investment, which likely would not have been made without BFTP’s help. Their assistance has been invaluable.”
Microsonic, which employs 70 people, typically sells to wholesalers in a retail hearing aid office, such as audiologists, hearing-aid dispensers, ear-nose-throat doctors and hospital clinics. These customers demand the highest quality and quickest turnaround, which has provided Microsonic some protection from foreign competition.
“We operate within a very small industry,” says Major. “We manufacture a truly custom, handmade product that does not lend itself to mass production. Even with automated production techniques, a great deal of specialty work is involved in preparing the ear impressions and the scans from which the automated products are made. It is unlikely that offshore competition will be a factor in the foreseeable future because of the size of the business.”
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