Rubber vs Elastomer

Basics

• They are often used interchangeably in industry etc, due to the original synthetic elastomers being designed as a direct replacement
• This group is now reffered to as Synthetic Rubbers and behave similarly, and are often Vulcanized
• There are however more elastomers which can't be vulcanized, and are Thermoplastics instead of Thermosets , They also have vastly different properties
• Therefore for clarity, and to a certain degree accuracy these materials can be classified as:
  • Natural Rubber
  • Synthetic Rubbers
  • Elastomers
• Again for common usage the difference isn't needed, but for technical descriptions etc, and avoiding ambiguity/confusion it is useful

External Links

• The Wikipedia Page on Elastomers