The assessment of carbon frames and carbon components is extremely critical, as it may be that, unlike what is known from aluminium and steel frames, carbon does not necessarily show any external damage, although affected by a loss occurrence. In addition, knowledge gained from the usage of metals, as is nearly exclusively the case in the automotive industry, can only be applied to carbon to a very limited degree.

This is an issue that the team around graduate engineer Dirk Zedler started to deal with almost 15 years ago and he has developed renowned test procedures and test routines to be able to test carbon frames which have been involved in accidents.

Stiffness tests are a part of the testing routine. They produce values referring to the actual physical characteristics. These values are compared to values of components in new condition.

One side effect of the stiffness tests is that possible cracks become visible under load. In the case of material delaminations the typical noises become audible as a result of the repeated load application and relief.
Further tests are performed in addition to detect impairments which may have occurred.

These procedures have been used and refined by Ingenieurbüro Zedler for more than 10 years. This procedure is meanwhile being used by a number of manufacturers.