If a specimen bends during a tensile test, strain peaks occur, which occur under increasing load near the fixing points. The result is an apparent premature failure with a break point near the specimen grips. Break points like these are indicators of misalignment of the testing machine. Since these strain and stress peaks are not directly visible in the testing machine, the material is characterized to indicate that there was homogeneous strain distribution across the entire cross-section. This leads to a misinterpretation of the measured force and strain values, which has an impact on the measured tensile modulus and strength values.