Abstract
As important light-weight structure material, aluminum alloys have been widely used in automotive and aerospace industries. In the last years, the manufacturing of parts with high strength and good dimensional accuracy has become the main objective in industrial applications. Within the available aluminum alloys, the 7xxx series has attract the interest of the industrial designers due to the high yield strength and ultimate tensile strength they present. However, the formability of these alloys in as-received industrial condition is very poor at room temperature and various studies are being carried out to develop efficient warm and hot forming processes to form them industrially using heated tools. In the present paper, the W-temper forming is studied as an alternative to the warm and hot forming processes. Heat treatment temperatures and critical times are presented and an industrial B-Pillar is formed to validate the new process. In the last chapter, the final mechanical properties of the part are reported, before and after a virtual e-coat process where the W-temper forming is compared with a hot stamping process.