A novel integrated hot forming with in-situ stress relaxation-aging for titanium alloy thin-walled components

The simultaneous achievement of high strength and precision in the fabrication of titanium alloy thin-walled components is a long-standing issue. This work proposes a novel integrated forming process, named Hot Forming with In-situ Stress Relaxation-Aging (short for HF-ISRA) to solve the special issue. In contrast to usual isothermal forming, the forming temperature in the proposed process is raised to the solution treatment temperature. Dies at a lower temperature realize in-situ stress relaxation-aging after hot forming. The role of the dies, in addition to forming, is also achieved post-forming heat treatment. This novel process comprises three main steps: solution heat treatment, rapid forming at solution temperature, and in-situ stress relaxation-aging. An experimental prototype of HF-ISRA was developed for V-bending test, in which a sheet blank was rapidly heated using electric current and the forming die was heated using heating rods. The process window of the proposed HF-ISRA was established based on the V-bending and uniaxial tensile tests of the TA15 titanium alloy. The results showed that compared with cold forming, the springback angle obtained using the optimized HF-ISRA decreased by 97.8 %, from 9°06′ to only 12′. The tensile strength at room temperature and 500 °C was improved by 4.4 % and 10.9 % compared with the as-received material, respectively. The relaxation mechanisms of α_s were the precipitation, growth, and then globularization. The relaxation mechanism of α_p was dislocation movements. The strength improvement in HF-ISRA was due to the formation of α_s and dislocations strengthening. The stress-induced twinning in α_s was also a contributor. The proposed novel process provides a new route for the fabrication of titanium alloy thin-walled components with high precision and strength.