Fatigue failure analysis of anti-vibration rubber spring

Rubber springs are widely used in industry as anti-vibration components giving many years of service. The metacone type of rubber spring is well established to control vertical and lateral movements. Nowadays, the more demanding operating environment has made the design of such components more challenging than ever before. The purpose of the FE analysis is to obtain an improved fatigue life of the spring from the requirements of our customers. It is shown that a quasi-static simulation for rubber springs using nonlinear software can provide good indication for product design and failure analysis. It is also shown that the virtual fatigue profile of the component can be obtained using both post processor and user subroutines, which provides clear picture of potential failures.