History

GUMFERENCE is a scientific conference focused on the advanced testing of soft polymeric materials. The origins of GUMFERENCE date back to 2011 when its first edition was held in Zlín, located in the southeast of the Czech Republic, where the polymer industry is concentrated within the Czech Republic.

The aim of the event was and is to develop cross-border cooperation in rubber science, especially between the industrial and academic sectors and research and development institutions. Seven editions of this one-day conference have already been organized in the spirit of this idea. Initially, the conference had a regional character. However, the growing popularity of the conference ensured its development from a local to an international event. This culminated in the sixth edition, held in 2022 and organized for the first time by a consortium of international partners consisting of Tomas Bata University in Zlín (Czech Republic) and the Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e.V. (Germany). Since this edition, the conference has been organised online in a virtual manner, which has facilitated access for participants from all over the world and arranged a program of distinguished scientists. In February 2025, 11 speakers from academia and industry originating from 8 different countries across Asia, Europe and North America presented their research work.

The following very interesting scientific programme was presented last Gumference 2025:

SpeakerTopic
Jun Sawada Effect of carbon black on migration of oil in SBR vulcanizate
Fanzhu Li Elastomer hyperelastic constitutive models and thermo-mechanical coupling fatigue life optimization of rubber products
Prasenjit Ghosh Temperature dependent fatigue properties of rubber compounds- An In-depth investigation
Mohit Goswami Multiaxial failure of elastomeric composites
Radek Stoček Rubber wear versus Thomas Law
Herber Baaser Some aspects of rubber instabilities
Lutz Zybell New methodologies for evaluating local strain fields in highly stretched elastomers
Aaron Duncan Using dynamic mechanical analysis to evaluate the combined effect of swelling and high temperature on rubber composites
Klara Loos Experimental investigation and modelling of strain-induced crystallisation in natural rubber under different ageing conditions
Jaydee Edwards Morphology and mineral encrustations of low- and high-density tire- and road-wear particles collected in Charleston, South Carolina
Christopher G Robertson Rheological signatures of temperature-induced structure in gum natural rubber