the peripheral edges of the individual ropes or strands 21 a 21 b 21 c a substantially intact continuous line means that there is no substantial damage to the edge profile and hence to the carrier element if the edge profile exhibits bulges fig6 c 21 a indentations fig6 c 21 b or interruptions fig6 c 21 c this indicates that the relevant rope or the strand is compressed kinked or ripped in this region or that a bundle of individual fibers of the rope or of the strand emerge from the rope or strand group this can assess a state of the carrier element particularly well without needing to consult a reference image all possibly occurring defects are preferably classified and provided with associated feature data which render it possible to search selectively for errors in the image data this is how it is possible to analyze the image data quickly with a high hit probability as mentioned previously interruptions bulges or frays in contours of a reflection pattern can be associated with a fault in a wire 211 or strand areal diffuse images can typically be identified as the formation of corrosion or wear debris the comparison of the transmission patterns and reflection patterns with a reference pattern which was generated for the relevant type of carrier elements is particularly advantageous further improvements can be obtained by virtue of reference patterns being newly formed after the installation of a carrier element 21 by virtue of the newly installed carrier element being run along and scanned that is to say the u201c fingerprint u201d of a new carrier element 21 is recorded as the intended state thereof after it has been installed and said fingerprint is stored in the storage unit 131 for future comparison.