Semi-solid processing (SSP), including rheoforming and thixoforming, offers a promising opportunity to manufacture net-shaped parts with complex structure and excellent mechanical properties. Owing to its low cost and short process, rheoforming has been the subject of extensive study over the last two decades. The interest in the rheoforming of wrought aluminum alloys is progressively growing among both the research and industrial communities. This review starts with reviewing the recent efforts and advances on preparation of semi-solid slurry of wrought Al alloys, followed by discussing the correlation between microstructure and performance of these alloys. Finally, special attention is paid in the industrial application and the future trends of rheoforming of wrought aluminum alloys.

Additively manufactured mechanical metamaterials exhibit extraordinary physical and mechanical performance. However, achieving a balance between lightweight design, strength, and energy absorption remains challenging. Here, we develop a material-structure-function integrated strategy to additively manufacture lightweight metamaterials. Specifically, strong yet ductile aluminum (Al) alloy with heterogeneous grain was developed to print hero shrew–inspired damage-resistant metamaterials. The synergistic interplay between microscale strengthening and mesoscale architectural stress regulation leads to a cross-scale coordination mechanism, which effectively bridges material heterogeneities and structural hierarchy for multilevel energy dissipation. Such a strategy enables our metamaterials to maintain a stable stress platform during deformation. Hence, our metamaterials display an excellent combination of ultralightweight (0.91 ± 0.01 g/cm ³ ), high relative yield strength (17.0 ± 0.7%), and unprecedented specific energy absorption (39.1 ± 0.7 J/g), surpassing most metallic metamaterials. This facile concept expands the design space for lightweight metamaterials and demonstrates scalable strategies to realize the cross-scale coordination mechanism required by multifunction, showing transformative potential in mass production for sustainable engineering solutions.