Hot Die Forming - Flat (HDF-FAl): An innovative hot forming technology for extreme lightweight in aluminum sheet alloys

Aluminum is an ideal material for light transport applications. Despite the obvious advantages in weight ratio and corrosion resistance, high strength aluminum alloys have limited formability compared to traditional steels at room temperature conditions. A solution is to combine mechanical loading with thermal component i.e. deformation at elevated temperature. Currently super plastic forming and Quick Plastic Forming (QPF) is used to enhance the formability of Aluminum alloys. However, the cycle time for super plastic forming as well as for QPF is too high for mass production. An innovative and novel forming method called Hot Die Forming (HDF) has been developed to achieve high strains in high strength aluminum alloys (maximum 700 [MPa]) by heating them to Solution Heat Temperature (SHT), while keeping the cycle time suitable for large scale production. To study the feasibility and optimize the process parameters, a digital platform has been developed for simulations of HDF process. The simulation process has been automated, the user can provide tool geometries and input parameters to check the feasibility of HDF process or to optimize the parameters and die shape.