Advances and challenges on springback control for creep age forming of aluminum alloy

Creep age forming (CAF) is an advanced forming technology that combines creep deformation and age hardening processes. When compared with the conventional forming technologies including roll bending and shot-peen forming, CAF has many advantages of low residual stress, excellent dimensional stability, good service performance and short production cycle. It is an optimal technique for precise manufacturing for shape and properties of large-scale complicated thin-walled components of light-weight and high strength aluminum alloys in the aviation and aerospace industries. Nevertheless, CAF has an inevitable disadvantage that a large amount of springback occurs after unloading, which brings a challenge on the accurate shape forming and property tailoring of components. Therefore, how to achieve accurate prediction and control of springback has always been a bottleneck hindering the development of CAF to more industrial applications. After the factors of affecting springback and measures of reducing springback are summarized from the internal and external aspects, constitutive models for predicting springback and springback compensation methods for CAF of aluminum alloy panel components are reviewed. Then, a review of research progresses on tool design for CAF is presented. Finally, in view of the key issue that it is difficult to predict and control the shape and properties of components during CAF, the technical challenges are discussed and future development trends of CAF are prospected.