Almen Strips are thin strips of SAE 1070 steel used to quantify the intensity of a shot peening process. A strip is placed in the chamber in place of the item to be shot peened, usually near an area of the item where the result is deemed critical. Compressive stress introduced by the peening operation causes the strip to deform into an arc, which is measured using a gauge. The “A" strip is used for medium intensity applications. It is considered the standard strip and is used when the required intensity range is an arc height of .004" .024". It is predominantly used for shot peening with cast shot or cut wire shot. The Almen Strips are made from plain carbon steel SAE 1070 and have a hardness of about 45 HRC.