Engineering with Rubber

Rubber is a material that is critical to modern industrial civilization, with applications surrounding us everywhere; yet rubber is probably the least understood materials that engineers use.  The most notable application of rubber occurs in modern transportation, which relies entirely upon rubber tires for propulsion, whether by truck, car, motorcycle, or bicycle.  Rubber is the ideal material for this because of its ability to accomplish multiple critical functions simultaneously: sealing the pressurized cushion of air that softens our ride; providing an extremely flexible and durable membrane to contain this air so we can realize the benefit of the cushion; and offering high surface friction to give the vehicle traction for propulsion, steering, and braking.

What is Rubber ?

The engineering definition of a rubber material is “any material that can stretch to at least 100% of its original length, and return to its original shape without permanent deformation”.  Although the term “rubber” originated from true natural rubber derived from trees, today the term is used to refer to a host of different engineering materials, most of which are synthetic, and all of which exhibit the hallmark flexibility of natural rubber.