The bonded foil strain gauge was invented at Saunders Roe on the Isle on Wight by Peter Scott-Jackson. Peter was a member of Saunders Roe's Strain Gauge Division where he was joined by Chief Engineer and Founder of JF SME Testing, (formally JF Strainstall) Frank Hartshorne.

Keen to further commercialise the technology, Frank Hartshorne, Bob Eldridge, and Archie Court founded Strainstall in Cowes, Isle of Wight. It was here that the company would pioneer the use of bonded foil strain gauge in load cells for high-assurance industries worldwide.

JF Strainstall now JF SME Testing designs and installs structural monitoring equipment on the first UK nuclear power station to use a pre-stressed concrete pressure vessel at Oldbury.

JF SME Testing (formally JF Strainstall) develops the first intrinsically safe hazardous area strain gauge amplifier to meet the safety demands of oil and gas operations in the North Sea.

JF SME Testing (formally JF Strainstall) supplies hazardous area load monitoring equipment for the UK’s National Coal Board. The equipment is specifically designed to operate safely in the potentially explosive and dusty atmosphere of coal mines. To this day, the company continues to supply specialised load cells for long wall mining applications.

JF SME Testing’s (formally JF Strainstall) load cells support Richard Branson as he flies across the Atlantic in a hot air balloon.

JF SME Testing (formally JF Strainstall) delivers load monitoring technology for the world’s largest ship lifting system at Devonshire Dock Hall, helping to safely lift Trident submarines.

JF SME Testing (formally JF Strainstall) develops its patented strain ring surface strain measurement device. The strain ring was initially developed for a Ministry of Defence contract to monitor load and fatigue damage in rapid deployable military bridges.

JF Strainstall, now JF SME Testing launches its StressAlert Hull Stress Monitoring System (HSMS). The system has been continually developed and updated over the years and has been installed on over 300 vessels since its launch.

JF SME Testing (formally JF Strainstall) first deploys its strain rings in offshore upstream operations. Since then, this technology has been widely used in the oil and gas sector.

We commenced dynamic testing of 100 rail bridges for the West Coast Mainline upgrade for faster, tilting trains.

 JF Strainstall, now JF SME Testing is awarded a landmark contract for the Abb Vetco tension leg platform in Exxon’s Kizomba oil field – off the coast of Angola.

We installed our structural monitoring system for the world's tallest tower, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.

James Fisher and Sons plc (JFS) acquires Strainstall now (JF SME Testing). This combines JF SME Testing’s specialist load monitoring experience with JFS’s global capability and depth of expertise.

JF SME Testing (formally JF Strainstall) installed an advanced structural monitoring and data management solution for a major fixed-bottom offshore wind farm in Europe. Since then, the company has been contracted to install its structural monitoring system for over 170 assets in the global offshore wind sector

JF SME Testing (formally JF Strainstall) launch its Container Weight System (CWS), which was quickly adopted by ports around the world to answer the industry’s SOLAS safety regulations.

JF SME Testing (formally JF Strainstall) continues to drive the renewables sector’s sustainable development by supplying load monitoring equipment to support the world's largest floating offshore wind farm.

JF SME Testing has a host of exciting new technologies and projects in the pipeline.