Press hardening is employed in the automotive industry to produce advanced high-strength steel components for safety and structural applications. This hot forming process depends on friction as it controls the deformation of the sheet. However, friction is also associated with wear of the forming tools. Tool wear is a critical issue when it comes to the dimensional accuracy of the produced components and it reduces the service life of the tool. It is therefore desirable to enhance the durability of the tools by studying the influence of high contact pressures, cyclic thermal loading, and repetitive mechanical loading on tool wear. This is difficult to achieve in conventional tribological testing devices. Therefore, the tribological behavior of tool–workpiece material pairs at elevated temperatures was studied in a newly developed experimental setup simulating the conditions prevalent during interaction of the hot sheet with the tool surface. Uncoated 22MnB5 steel and aluminum–silicon (Al–Si)-coated 22MnB5 steel were tested at 750 °C and 920 °C, respectively. It was found that higher loads led to lower and more stable friction coefficients independent of sliding velocity or surface material. The influence of sliding velocity on the coefficient of friction was only marginal. In the case of Al–Si-coated 22MnB5, the friction coefficient was generally higher and unstable due to transfer of Al–Si coating material to the tool. Adhesion was the main wear mechanism in the case of uncoated 22MnB5.

The demands associated with the production of advanced parts made of nickel-base superalloys are continuously increasing to meet the requirements of current environmental laws. The use of lightweight components in load-carrying aero-engine structures has the potential to significantly reduce fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. Furthermore, the competitiveness of the aero-engine industry can benefit from reduced production costs and shorter development times while minimizing costly try-outs and increasing the efficiency of engines. The manufacturing process of aero-engine parts in superalloys at temperatures close to 950 °C produces reduced stamping force, residual stresses, and springback compared to traditional forming procedures occurring at room temperature. In this work, a hot forming procedure of a double-curved component in alloy 718 is studied. The mechanical properties of the material are determined between 20 and 1000 °C. The presence and nature of serrations in the stress–strain curves are assessed. The novel version of the anisotropic Barlat Yld2000-2D material model, which allows the input of thermo-mechanical data, is used in LS-DYNA to model the behaviour of the material at high temperatures. The effect of considering the stress-relaxation data on the predicted shape distortions is evaluated. The results show the importance of considering the thermo-mechanical anisotropic properties and stress-relaxation behaviour of the material to predict the final geometry of the component with high accuracy. The implementation of advanced material models in the finite element (FE) analyses, along with precise process conditions, is vital to produce lightweight components in advanced materials of interest to the aerospace industry.