Elastomers, metals and plastics combine complimentary properties to give extremely useful products that deliver a wide range of functions in a diverse variety of applications. The talk will illustrate, with specific examples, the unique properties of rubbers combined with engineering principals, in ingenious and sophisticated ways in a diverse range of products. Some of the products discussed will be: automotive hydraulic engine mounts (which are now used across most car platforms) where the rubber is use used to channel fluid so the mount becomes a two mass dynamic absorber; some rubber - textile components including hovercraft skirts and tyres. An unusual application is the rubber part that extracts the milk from the cow’s teat where for stress analysis both the soft tissue of the cow teat and the rubber liner can be considered as soft materials that undergo large deformation and analysed as a system so that the mechanisms of damage to the cow teat can be understood. 

Rubber parts are often used at an interface between different parts of a system so to optimise the rubber parts a good understanding of the system is needed. So some interesting aspects of the various systems will be presented.