Formability Characteristics of AA5083 Sheets under Hot Forming Conditions

The production of aluminum alloy components through sheet forming processes conducted at elevated temperatures is gaining more and more interest as it gives raise to the possibility of a significant enhancement of the metal formability characteristics, compared to room temperature forming. Aluminum alloy AA5083 blanks, which present a limited formability at room temperature, are usually formed through superplastic forming at elevated temperature: however, this processing route is too slow to be applicable for large batch production, typical for instance of the automotive industry. The paper is aimed at exploring the formability characteristics of the AA5083 when deformed at elevated temperature, but in a range of strain rates higher than those usually applicable in superplastic forming. To this aim, uni-axial tensile tests were carried out, in order to record the material formability characteristics as a function of temperature and strain rate, and to correlate them with the developed microstructural features. It is shown that it is possible to work at higher strain rates, still preserving a significant formability, even without using a conventional fine-grained superplastic alloy.