Recent Trends in Metal Forming: From Process Simulation and Microstructure Control In Classical Forming Processes to Hybrid Combinations Between Forming and Additive Manufacturing

This paper describes some recent trends in metal forming such as isothermal forging of titanium aluminides and process combinations between metal forming and additive manufacturing. These trends rely on accurate process and material models for process design. Process and material models must hence be able to track the microstructure evolution in complex materials such as titanium aluminides as well as predict the microstructure evolution along process histories with multiple deformation and/or heat input steps. In models for such processes, JMAK-type kinetics for and phase transformation are still common. For processes involving deformation and heat, the accuracy, consistency and limits of JMAK-type models are discussed. It is shown that the consistency of DRX models as well as the stability of model predictions in multi-stage processes require further attention.