SALSA—A new instrument for strain imaging in engineering materials and components

Residual stresses are very hard to predict and if undetected can lead to premature failure or unexpected behaviour of engineering materials or components. This paper describes the operation of a new residual strain-mapping instrument, Strain Analyser for Large and Small scale engineering Applications (SALSA), recently commissioned at the public user facility, the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble, France. A unique feature of this neutron diffraction instrument is the sample manipulator, which is the first of its kind, allowing precise scanning of large and heavy (<500 kg) samples along any trajectory involving translations, tilts and rotations. Other notable features of the instrument are also described.