China's aluminum alloy forging industry stands at the top of the world trend.

Metal forging is an ancient process, which was born almost at the same time as the use of metal materials by human beings. thousands of years of human history of discovering and using metals has been accompanied by the development of forging technology. the extraction of aluminum by electrolysis began in 1888. but in the previous Napoleon era, a small amount of aluminum extracted by manual hammer forging was used to make royal utensils and toys, when aluminum was more expensive than gold.

The mechanized forging of aluminum began in Europe and the United States at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century. China's aluminum alloy forging industry basically developed after liberation. In 1961, Harbin Aluminum processing Plant (now Northeast Light Alloy Co., Ltd.) Phase II project forging workshop was completed and put into production, opening China has the precedent of modern aluminum forging industry, there are 100MN, 50MN, 30MN die forging machines introduced from the Soviet Union, 1 3MN free forging machine, 2 die milling machines, die forgings design production capacity 3.7 million tons / year, free forgings production capacity 800t / year, products mainly for the aviation industry service. 36 tons of die forgings were produced in 1962 and free forgings began to be produced in 1972. By 1983, Harbin Aluminum processing Plant had produced 17600 tons of die forgings and 372.8 tons of free forgings, with a production capacity of 20.2t / (MN a).

In 1973, the third trial run of 300MN die forging hydraulic press in Southwest Aluminum processing Plant (now Southwest Aluminum (Group) Co., Ltd.) was successful, and the design production capacity of die forgings was 2500 tons / year. In 1974, the first batch of boom six frame H81 went offline. There are one eight-column vertical 300MN die forging hydraulic press and one 60MN vertical free forging machine, both of which are designed and manufactured by the first heavy machinery factory. Later, a 100MN free forging hydraulic press, 100MN multi-directional die forging hydraulic press and 500mm radial and axial numerical control ring rolling machine were added, and the production capacity of forgings reached 68t/ (MN ·a).

Before the reform and opening up, the aluminum alloy forging enterprises built in China's metallurgical system were the above two plants. In addition, four forging plants have been built in the aerospace system.

Guizhou Anda Aviation forging Co., Ltd., which was put into production in 1966, has imported 10MN, 80MN and 250MN isothermal die forging machines, one ring rolling mill, and the production capacity of forgings is 5200 tons per year.

Shaanxi Xingping forging Plant, which was put into production in 1970, has one 200MN die forging machine and one 15kN, 20kN, 50kN and 100kN forging machine, all of which are made in China, with a production capacity of 9500 tons per year.

Hanzhong Qunfeng Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd., which was put into production in 1968, has a total forging force of 93.8mn, one each of domestic 40MN, 25MN, 12.5MN and 6.3MN, and three free forging machines with less forging force, with a production capacity of about 405t / year.

Jiangxi Jinghang Aviation forging and casting Co., Ltd., which was put into production in 1970, has 1 63MN friction press and 1 die forging machine, 1 80MN and 10MN die forging machine, and 7 other small forging machines, all of which are designed and manufactured in China, with a total forging force of 246mn and a total production capacity of 11100 tons per year.

According to the survey, as of December 2020, there are about 40 aluminum alloy forging plants (excluding wheels) in China, there are about 115 forging machines, the total forging force is about 8000mn, and the total production capacity of forgings is about 360000 tons per year. It is estimated that the operating rate of equipment is only about 60%, so the actual output in 2020 is only 216000 tons, which not only meets domestic demand, but also exports a small amount.

The forging industry ranks among the great powers in the world.

In 2020, China's output of aluminum forgings and extrusion (forgingsandImpacts) is about 340000 tons, and aluminum production is 36 million tons (author's data). The output of forgings accounts for 0.94% of the total aluminum output, slightly less than the 1% of the United States, because the output of aerospace forgings in China is less than that in the United States, but it also shows that the structure of aluminum in China is very reasonable, and the proportion of forgings is very close to that of developed countries. It can be said that the proportion of aluminum alloy forgings in China and the United States is almost equal in the total output of aluminum products. In 2020, China's output of aluminum alloy forgings accounted for about 48% of the world's total output, while the output of the United States was only 68% of that of China. China ranks first in the output of aluminum alloy forgings and extrusions in the world, followed by the United States, the third in Japan, the fourth in Germany and the fifth in Russia. Although the output of aerospace forgings in Russia is larger than that in Japan and Germany, other forgings are much less.

China has the largest number of heavy forging machines in the world. We can define forging machines with forging forces between 100MN and 500MN as large forging machines, and heavy forging machines with forging forces greater than 500MN as heavy forging machines or super large forging machines. As of December 2020, China has about 21 heavy forging machines and 3 heavy forging machines, which are 800MN die forging machines of China Erzhong Group, 500MN die forging machines of Nanshan Aluminum Industry and 500MN die forging machines of Shandong Hangqiao New Materials. 800MN die forging machine, which is the "aircraft carrier" of the world forging press, is designed and manufactured by Sichuan Deyang No.2 heavy Machinery Group Co., Ltd., settled in the company's forging plant, has been operating normally since it was put into production in 2003, and has provided a large number of high-quality aluminum alloy and titanium alloy forgings for the motherland's aerospace industry. The company also has one forging machine each for 400MN, 200MN, 45MN and 16MN. This configuration of the forging machine is extremely reasonable. Among the heavy die forging machines, there are 2 750MN in Russia and 1 650MN in France. The double forging plant is a forging enterprise in China, the total forging pressure of the forging press 1461MN.

Nanshan Aluminium has four forging presses, which have been put into production since December 2015. it is newly built and imported in China after 2015. It is designed by France. This is also the first time in an aluminum processing plant built in China. All forging equipment has been imported from Germany. Among them, one 125MN and one 500MN forging press, manufactured by (Siempelkamp) of New Bell Komp Company in Germany, were installed and debugged in the first half of 2016. There is also a free forging machine for 25MN and 60MN, which is imported from (Wepukohypdiulik), a company under the sea of Wepke, Germany. The total forging force of the project is 710mn, and the design forgings have a production capacity of 14000 tons / year, that is, about 20 tons / (a ·MN). Prior to this, Nanshan Aluminum Co., Ltd. had a good cooperation with Safran in France and Rollo in the UK, delivering the first batch of B737 wheels to the former, becoming an enterprise in China that can provide forged wheels for civil aircraft, and cooperated with the latter to promote the certification of shaft forgings and completed the COSAP testing of a certain model disc and shaft parts of Luo Luo.

The third largest forging factory is Shandong Hangqiao Aviation Materials Co., Ltd., which was put into production in August 2016. it is a joint venture between Beijing Aeronautical Materials Research Institute and Weiqiao Aluminum Power Co., Ltd., with one 500MN free forging machine, provided by the first heavy machinery manufacturing company, and one 36MN, 25MN, 16MN die forging machine each; all designed and manufactured by Tianjin forging equipment Co., Ltd. The total forging pressure of the company's forging press is 577mn, and the design production capacity is 10, 000 tons / year, that is, about 17. 3 tons / (a ·MN). As can be seen from the above, there is still some gap between the annual production capacity of the unit extrusion force of the domestic forging press and the imported advanced equipment, but the gap is not large.

Northwest Aluminum Co., Ltd. provides high-precision aluminum alloy forgings for Nanchang warship sonar system. Aluminum alloy, especially 5-series alloy, has strong corrosion resistance to sea water and marine environment, so it is one of the materials for manufacturing marine equipment structures and shore-based facilities. Northwest Aluminum provides high-precision and high-quality aluminum forgings for the "underwater Eye" submarine sonar system of Nanchang warship in China.

The forging process is beneficial to the process optimization of the product, can improve its structure, has the characteristics of fine grain and uniform size, reduces the deformation resistance after hot working, and improves the plasticity and mechanical properties of the metal. and has good corrosion resistance, thermal conductivity and non-magnetic, can meet the needs of special products. In order to meet the needs of precision forging production, Northwest Aluminum has introduced 8MN forging press, and the R & D and production departments closely cooperate with each other, from die design, product trial production, process improvement to the formation of batch production to tackle key problems layer by layer, providing nearly 5000 aluminum forgings of two specifications for China Shipbuilding heavy Industry.

Chinese Aluminum Alloy Forgings advance to the World Aeronautics and Astronautics

Since the forging workshop of Northeast Light Alloy Co., Ltd. was put into production in 1961, about 40 aluminum alloy forging plants (excluding wheel factories) with certain scale for aerospace industry and general manufacturing industry have been built in China. While providing them with the light alloy forgings they need, they have also actively honed their way to the world, and made gratifying achievements.

Over the past decade, the forgings of Southwest Aluminum (Group) Co., Ltd. have successfully entered the supply circle of Boeing in the United States and Airbus in Europe, and the forgings have been successfully installed with thousands of spacecraft produced by them, soaring into the blue sky and flying to the ends of the earth.

In January this year, Guizhou Anda Aviation forging Co., Ltd. won the third place in the world and the first order share in China at the global bidding conference for ring forgings and casing projects held by Luo Luo in the United Kingdom. write a new chapter for the development of Anda's international civil aviation industry.

This bidding is a ring forging and casing bidding project held after this year's global machine parts bidding of Luo Luo Co., Ltd. Anda was invited to participate as a strategic forging supplier of Luo Luo Co., Ltd. Under the great attention and arrangement of the leaders of the company, the Ontario bidding team began to sort out bidding data such as bidding technical plan, production capacity, digital standard, price adjustment plan and so on in groups several months ago, in order to prepare for formal bidding. During the week of the formal bidding, due to jet lag, team members were busy from 05:00 in the afternoon to the early morning of the next day, presenting the bidding materials to the Luo Luo bidding team through a network conference, and worked hard for nearly 16 hours a day. Finally, successfully won the bid.

In recent years, centering on the enterprise development vision of building a special forging base in China and building aerospace forging suppliers, Anda relies on the core technical advantages of professional forging and takes civil aviation and other foreign trade fields as a breakthrough. actively explore and deepen cooperation with world-renowned equipment manufacturing enterprises, Now it has developed into an important supplier of civil aviation forgings products of more than 20 international well-known enterprises, such as Luo Luo of the United Kingdom, GE of the United States, ITP of Spain, Safran of France, IHI of Japan and so on.

Hongrun extruded large diameter forging billet with jet forming ingot for the first time

In late January this year, Hebei Hongrun Nuclear equipment Technology Co., Ltd. cooperated with Jiangsu Haoran spray forming Alloy Co., Ltd., using its spray-formed aluminum-lithium alloy ingots to successfully extrude large-diameter billets for high-end aerospace forgings and successfully extruded large-diameter tubes.

Previously, only the United States and Russia had relatively mature production capacity of large aluminum-lithium alloy forgings. The successful extrusion of this aluminum-lithium alloy material has laid the foundation for the development of aluminum-lithium alloy industry and lightweight industry in China.

"this material is 3% lighter than pure aluminum, but after extrusion, its strength is increased by 6%, and the product has high added value. Only the business of large diameter aluminum-lithium alloy bars and tubes has been completed. It can create a profit of nearly 8 million yuan for the enterprise." Li Fuhai, deputy general manager of Hebei Hongrun Nuclear equipment Technology Co., Ltd., said. The large diameter aluminum-lithium alloy bar not only provides a strong guarantee for the high-precision and high-performance design and manufacture of 4mm-7m diameter aluminum alloy ring forgings in China, but also lays a solid foundation for the development of enterprises and broadens the development field.

It is reported that the extruded billet of large aluminum-lithium alloy forgings is jointly completed by the company and Jiangsu Haoran spray forming Alloy Co., Ltd., which is another innovative work after the company has completed the fourth generation nuclear power fast reactor pressure tube, nuclear grade P11 1079mm tube, 316H 1020mm tube, 650 ℃ high temperature G115 scientific research tee, P92 steel pipe, nickel-based alloy bar, 7075 large diameter aluminum alloy extrusion products and other special products since 2020. Jiangsu Haoran spray forming Alloy Co., Ltd. is the first high-tech enterprise specializing in the R & D, production and sales of spray forming high-performance alloys in China. It industrially produces key alloy materials needed in aerospace, advanced industries and other high-end fields, mainly including aluminum alloy, silicon-aluminum electronic packaging materials, alloy steel, aluminum-lithium alloy and so on.

Star-studded wrought aluminum alloy

Aluminum alloy has a series of advantages, so its forgings have the same properties, such as: low density, the density of aluminum alloy is only 34% of that of steel and 30% of copper, so the quality of equal strength aluminum alloy forgings is only 54% of that of steel forgings; the specific strength, specific stiffness, specific elastic modulus and fatigue strength are high; the microstructure is fine and uniform, there are few visible defects, and its reliability is much higher than that of castings and die castings. Good formability, can be forged into a variety of complex forgings; high corrosion resistance, good thermal conductivity, and non-magnetic, far better than steel forgings; good surface performance, bright and smooth, and surface treatment properties (common forged aluminum alloy properties and typical applications are shown in the table below). (author: Wang Zhutang)