Abstract
An increasing number of railway vehicles are using rubber springs as suspension elastic elements. Rubber is a suitable material for suspension purposes due to of its intrinsic properties and due to of the variety of forms into which it can be made. The clouth-type rubber spring may be used in both primary and secondary suspension of the vehicle and it may ensure the desired characteristics by setting the shape of its metallic components. In the present paper, a finite element static analysis was performed regarding the deformation of the clouth spring rubber under the action of various loads: vertical, longitudinal and transversal. The simulations allowed determining the distribution of deformations within the rubber element, the magnitude and the location of the largest deformation. Keywords: rubber, railway vehicle, suspension, clouth-type spring