Abstract:The aim of this work is to investigate the deformation behavior of commercial 5A06 aluminum alloy sheet for rapid gas forming at elevated temperature. So-called cup-shaped workpieces were formed under different conditions. The temperatures ranged from 325 °C to 500 °C. The gas pressure was 2.5 MPa and 4.0 MPa, with different duration time from 8 s to 120 s. The profiles, corner radius and thickness distribution of the formed specimens were measured and analyzed. The results show that the formability of the sheet is improved by increasing the testing temperature, duration time and gas pressure. Corner radius changes obviously before the temperature attains to 450 °C or within 30 s, and then trends to the minimum value (about 2.0 mm) gently. Higher forming gas pressure can be used to reduce the duration time at the appropriate temperature ranging from 400 °C to 500 °C. However, the sheet needs enough deformation time to conform final corner filling when the gas pressure is 4.0 MPa. The minimum wall thickness appears at the transition zone between corner and bottom.

Key words: 5A06 Al alloy sheet; quick plastic forming; rapid gas forming; formability; deformation behavior; thickness distribution