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The article reports that the Stephen Hall discusses the golden rules for design. Topics discussed include Accurate weight measurements are obtained when extraneous forces are eliminated or compensated for; and Extraneous forces may be generated from lateral loads, thermal expansion or contraction, or bending moments from attached components and piping.

The article offers tips to help engineers spec the best actuator for rodless cylinder, an alternative to conventional air cylinders and electromechanical actuators. It suggests to check the air pressure with a gauge to get an accurate reading and build in safe engineering practices and to determine the required travel distance in specifying the actuator's overall length (OAL). Moreover, actuators that work bests are sized based on load, force, and bending-moment capacities with a safety margin. INSET: Software to the rescue.

The article discusses developments in tunnelling design as of January 2015, particularly the strategy to prevent bending moments on a mine-access project. An application of the strategy is the access drift project for the salt-mine venture of Irish Salt Mining& Exploration (ISME) in Northern Ireland. The project was undertaken by tunnelling specialist Joseph Gallagher (JGL). Also appointed as subcontractor is Alan Auld Engineering (AAE).

The article discusses the Short Beam Shear (SBS) test method as an interlaminar shear test method for composite materials, preferred by many users for its simplicity, need for small test specimen size and ease in test performance. A beam specimen is loaded by SBS in three-point bending to force the failing of the beam specimen in a shear mode, achieved as the shear stress is independent of the support length. As the beam is shorter, it results in greater shear stress.

The article reports on the application of a curved beam subjected to axial tensile loading in testing the through-the-thickness tensile strength of a composite material. The author discusses the importance of through-the-thickness tensile strength and the challenges in performing the tensile test. It is noted that a number of test-fixture geometries have been proposed for curved beam, all of which induce a combined axial tensile force and a bending moment.