The primary purpose of the isolation cones is to insulate heat-sensitive components from the hot belly-pan of the chassis.
However, the cones also have to provide mounting strength, and that, like everything, has to be tested. One photograph illustrates destructive compression testing of a cone. The other illustrates the graphic result of a destructive cone test. A movie of the test and the resulting force-displacement history appears in an adjacent post to this site.

From AstroboticBlogPhotos