The structural integrity field (abbreviated SIF) was a technology developed by spacefaring cultures to supplement the natural structural integrity of the material their starship hulls or other constructions were composed of. Engineers used a structural integrity force field to supplement the supports and bulkheads that gave a piece of architecture its shape. This technology was made necessary by the fantastic stresses and probability of a hull breach presented by warp fields and spatial phenomena present in the galaxy. The field strength was usually measured in percentages. A structural integrity reading of 100% meant that the field was accepting a maximum load of the stresses presented to the structure, and that all physical architecture was safe from that stress. As the percentage approached zero, this meant that more and more of the stress of weapons, gravity, and other phenomena was being experienced by the hull itself rather than the force field. As the hull became damaged or breached, the SIF became less effective as the hull it was designed to hold together started to disintegrate.