A New Product Is Born

At this point, a design firm was retained to turn the winning new hearing aid battery concept into a reality. The difference between this new product and other traditional hearing aid batteries was to be in the application system. The user would simply use the applicator to put the battery into the hearing aid. The applicator would be magnetized so that there would be no risk of the batterys dropping on the ground.

The actual design turned out to be a circular delivery system that had the batteries sealed. This was similar to the familiar traditional hearing aid packaging, although it was much better because it actually installed the batteries for the user. The user would simply rotate the device to a fresh battery, then push it off of a tabbing material onto a magnet. The magnet then held it so that the user could put it right into the hearing aid. It was a very simple process that Energizer was able to patent.

One of the problems with hearing aid batteries is that they are activated by the oxygen in the air through a small pinhole. If you handle these batteries, the oil on your hand can get into the pinhole and affect the performance of the battery. The new design kept the batteries sealed until the user was ready to use one, and would peel the tab off and insert the battery without the user ever touching the battery.

This new design also had significant advantages for audiologists. Traditionally these professionals had to do a dexterity test on users to see what size battery they could handle. An audiologist might not be able to prescribe the best hearing aid for an individual situation or the smallest hearing aid if the user did not have the dexterity to handle the small battery. This prevented some people from using almost invisible hearing aids. The new product design addressed that situation and gave audiologists the latitude to recommend any hearing aid.