Nitro Snowboards tests with Zwick

In the sport and leisure industry, testing is a vital element in improving product quality.As well as classical materials testing, component testing has become essential in view of the continuous development of sports equipment and the ever-increasing role of technology. The investigation of mechanical properties is of particular importance and Nitro Snowboards uses a Zwick testing machine for this purpose.

Snowboards have evolved into genuine high-tech products over the last few years. In addition to their principal element – wood - new combinations of composite materials such as glass and carbon fiber are designed to give boards greater stability and better handling characteristics. A 3-point flexure test is used to check the flex and shape properties of snowboards. For this the board is loaded up to break point in a special flexure test kit. The characteristic values obtained are channeled directly into product development. The test is also used to monitor current production batches.

The machine used by Nitro for this test is a Zwick AllroundLine. The advantage of this machine is that it possesses a second test area in which additional tests can be performed independently of the flexure test; for example, the fasteners of bindings and showboard shoes can be tested for maximum load capacity. “The ease of performing tests, together with the convenience of exporting results directly into our development work via the testXpert II software, have convinced us of this machine’s value,” states Florian Lang, Head Developer at Nitro. 

Video Snowboard Testing