Comments and conclusion

Rubber is in competition with thermoplastic elastomers due to the latter's ease of processing. Nevertheless, rubbers offer unrivalled properties for dynamic applications and fatigue resistance. Specialty rubbers remain irreplaceable in today's harsh aeronautical, offshore and automotive environments, where very high temperatures (300°C) are sometimes required, combined with chemical resistance to a wide variety of media (oil, crude oil, acid, base, adblue, etc.).

Environmental issues are becoming increasingly important: reducing the rolling resistance of tires to save fuel, the search for bio-sourced materials, the reuse of used rubber... This last point is the subject of major developments, given the very high quantities of used tires being discarded, and the ever-increasing price of raw materials. Recovered rubber is ground and regenerated, or incorporated as...