Elastomer components for oil-field applications have to withstand various exposures. For example these are high temperatures, pressure, aggressive fluids and various gases. In this context one special failure type at high pressure and under the influence of various gases have to be paid special attention to, the rapid gas decompression failure. This type of failure can cause crack growth, swelling, extensive deformation and at least catastrophic fragmentation. The aim of this master thesis was to characterize the mechanical behaviour of hydrogenated nitrile butadiene rubber (HNBR). Special attention was paid on the acrylonitrile (ACN) content due to the main influence on the mechanical properties (e.g. elasticity and stiffness) as well as on the RGD-performance of these elastomers. Overall three elastomer materials with different acrylonitrile content were measured at different test-temperatures and two special parameters (temperature-factor and ACN-factor) were defined. As a trend for the temperature the results showed a declining stiffness by rising temperatures and a decreasing influence of the temperature with increasing temperatures. The ACN-factor shows for dynamic-mechanical experiments a declining ACN-influence on the stiffness at higher ACN-contents; in monotonic tests an unexpected stiffness maximum for an average ACN-content was observed. With the results generated in this master thesis conclusions may be drawn regarding the RGD failure and in addition they enhance a further modelling of the investigated materials with elastomer-specific material models.