"Rubber" an indispensable material for high performance in sports application

Abstract

The present paper deals with the development of a progressive rubber-suspension system as light weight construction substituting a combination of a steel spring and rubber bushing system for sports equipment application. The new developed rubber suspension element uses the V-element geometry with respect to well-known non-linear mechanical behaviour of rubber and the expected non-linear relationship between required forces and the deformation of the suspension system. As example for application a mountain board in kiting sports was selected. The approach is based on the correlation between the kinematics of the athlete and the viscoelastic behaviour of rubber-suspension elements.