The 6xxx aluminum alloy is the first choice for automotive lightweight forgings due to its excellent performance, high strength and low weight. The production time of current aluminum alloy forging generally exceeds 10 h. To reduce the production time of traditional aluminum alloy forgings, 6082-T6 aluminum alloy is used in the forming process. The effects of different heating temperatures (200 °C, 300 °C, and 400 °C) and deformation degrees (30%, 50%, and 70%) on the deformability and properties of 6082-T6 billets have been investigated. The results show that when the heating temperature is higher than 300 °C, the compressive deformation resistance obviously decreases with increasing strength. With compression at 200 °C and 70% deformation with short heating time, the strength of the sample is close to the T6 (solution treatment and artificial aging) state. A large number of dislocations and subgrains were introduced due to the compression deformation, and their amounts decreased as the heating temperature increased. The size of the precipitated phase β′′ slightly grows under a heating temperature of 200 °C. However, when the heating temperature is higher than 300 °C, the precipitated phase gradually changes from β′′, which is optimal for the strengthening effect, to β′ and β, which offer weaker strengthening. Therefore, under a lower heating temperature of 200 °C for 5 min, a large number of dislocations are introduced with the β′′ precipitated phase, leading to higher strength with less heat treatment time.

Large and complex ring forgings are key structural parts of the aerospace field, and their quality is closely related to the reliability of aerospace vehicles. However, high-quality production of aerospace ring forgings faces many problems, such as the long process design cycle and impoverished consistency, the difficulties of real-time detection under the severe time-varying state of the deformation process, the complexity of high-quality non-destructive testing under multitudinous defects, and the cumbersome management control of the multi-source and multi-dimensional heterogeneous data. Considering the current situation of multi-variety and multi-batch production for aerospace ring forgings, establishing an intelligent production line is a crucial means to solving the above problems and realizing the standardization and premiumization of key aerospace components. Therefore, management control and integration technology of the intelligent production line play a crucial role. An analysis, including the research progress of the intelligent computer-aided process planning (CAPP) system, the real-time detection and control system, the product quality testing system, and the intelligent management control and integration system, is systematically reviewed in this work. Through intelligently managing and controlling the integrated systems of the production line, the production efficiency of ring forgings can be effectively improved, and the production energy consumption can be remarkably reduced, which is of great significance for enhancing the manufacturing technology level of aerospace products.

Interfacial layers greatly influence the performance of steel–aluminum friction stir welding (FSW) joints, and understanding the formation and evolution of intermetallic compounds (IMC) can help improve the mechanical properties of the welds. In this study, FSW was used to join DP 1180 high-strength steel to 7075 Al at different welding speeds. The effect of the galvanized layer on the IMC formation and evolution, and the mechanical performance of the steel–Al FSW joints were investigated. It was found that the galvanized steel–Al joints were formed only by metallurgical bonding, a continuous IMC layer composed of FeAl, Fe₃Al, and Al–Zn eutectic developed at the joint interfaces. Joints were mechanically and metallurgically bonded in the non-galvanized steel, and a 3 µm thick IMC layer consisting of FeAl existed only in the stir zone (SZ). IMC layer formation was predicted according to thermodynamic principles, which is consistent with the interfacial microstructure evolution identified by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Shear tensile test results showed that the galvanized layer can effectively improve the metallurgical bonding strength of the steel–Al joints, and the optimum tensile properties were found in galvanized steel–Al joints.

Currently, the single-point incremental forming process often faces issues such as insufficient formability of the sheet metal and low strength of the formed parts. To address this problem, this study proposes a pre-aged hardening single-point incremental forming (PH-SPIF) process that offers several notable benefits, including shortened procedures, reduced energy consumption, and increased sheet forming limits while maintaining high mechanical properties and geometric accuracy in formed components. To investigate forming limits, an Al-Mg-Si alloy was used to form different wall angles during the PH-SPIF process. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) analyses were conducted to characterize microstructure evolution during the PH-SPIF process. The results demonstrate that the PH-SPIF process can achieve a forming limit angle of up to 62°, with excellent geometric accuracy, and hardened component hardness reaching up to 128.5 HV, surpassing the strength of the AA6061-T6 alloy. The DSC and TEM analyses reveal numerous pre-existing thermostable GP zones in the pre-aged hardening alloys, which undergo transformation into dispersed β” phases during the forming procedure, leading to the entanglement of numerous dislocations. The dual effects of phase transformation and plastic deformation during the PH-SPIF process significantly contribute to the desirable mechanical properties of the formed components.