One ideal application would be for the evaluation of various suspension systems being proposed for mountain bikes. A special testing machine, based on pneumatics, is available for submitting bicycle forks and other bicycle components to various static and fatigue loading conditions. The in-plane load can be applied at any angle and can test for different applied loading conditions. Input loads can be static, sinusoidal, or quasi-impact. The device is connected to a computer controlled data acquisition system.
Expertise exists for stress and failure analysis of advanced materials and structures.
Advanced finite element software is used operating on a network of workstations. Components or systems that are still in the design phase can be evaluated under different loading conditions. Expertise is available for design using either conventional materials or advanced composite materials such as carbon fiber or Kevlar. Special emphasis is placed on the development of lightweight, high-tech composite structures for the bicycle industry. Zen Composites is ready to work on special projects involve complex structures using composite materials.