Tim Wescott wrote:

"Elastomer" is High Falutin for rubber, urethane, etc.

Actually it simply an acronym for "elastic polymer". That is what I
should have said in reply to the first reply, and left it at that.

AFAIK there's a lot of opportunity to make things better as well as a
lot of opportunity to screw things up -- there's a huge range of
available materials

Yup. Surprising how complex materials can be, nowadays.