Welding-induced distortions and residual stresses of structural components can result in significant increase in manufacturing costs and then limit the development of innovative designs. The objective of the present proposal is to measure the residual stresses in three Stainless Steel tungsten inert gas welds (bead-on-plate) fabricated with different constrain conditions. These experiments are a part of a NIMRC research project funded through EPSRC, which aims to develop a computational tool for modelling the manufacture of fabricated, lightweight complex aero-engine structures. The purpose of the tool is to identify the optimum welding sequence/procedure to minimise the distortions and residual stresses for such structures. The experimentally determined stress values will be used to validate the modelling so that the missing link between modelling and validation can be fixed.