Forming of Aluminum Alloys

Aluminum and its alloys are among the more formable materials of commonly fabricated metals. This article discusses the formability, bendability, and springback of aluminum and its alloys. It describes the forming limit diagrams that illustrate the biaxial combinations of strain that can occur without splitting. The article reviews various bending methods, such as draw, compression, ram and press, roll, and stretch or tension bending. It describes the process variations of incremental sheet forming (ISF), such as single-point incremental forming, two-point incremental forming, and kinematic incremental sheet forming. The article concludes with a discussion on spinning, warm forming, and superplastic forming.