According to the current application situation in various countries, the main market distribution is as follows.

(1) aviation (aircraft) forgings: forgings on aircraft account for about 70% of the weight of aircraft materials, such as landing gear, frame, ribs, engine parts, moving rings and stationary rings, etc. There are thousands of forgings used on an aircraft, most of which have been aluminized except for a few high-temperature components using high-temperature alloys and titanium alloy forgings. For example, Boeing Company of the United States has an annual output of thousands of aircraft and consumes tens of thousands of tons of aluminum alloy forgings. China's fighter planes and other military and civil aircraft are also developing rapidly, especially the start of large aircraft projects and the implementation of major projects such as aircraft carriers, and the aluminum forgings that need to be consumed will also increase year by year.

(2) Aerospace forgings: The forgings on spacecraft are mainly forging rings, rims, spars and frames, and most of them are aluminum forgings, only a few are titanium forgings. With the development of spacecraft, rockets, missiles and satellites, the demand for aluminum forgings is increasing day by day. For example, in recent years, AL-Li alloy shell forgings for ultra-long-range missiles developed by China weigh more than 300 kilograms each and are worth hundreds of thousands of yuan. The amount of various aluminum alloy forging rings with φ 1.5 ~ φ 6mm is increasing.

(3) Weapons industry: The number of aluminum alloy forgings used as load-bearing parts in conventional weapons, such as tanks, armored vehicles, personnel carriers, chariots, rockets, gun racks, warships, etc., has greatly increased, basically replacing steel forgings. In particular, important forgings such as aluminum alloy tank load wheels have become important materials for lightweight and modernization of weapons and equipment.

(4) Automobile is the most promising industry and the biggest user of aluminum forgings. It is mainly used as wheel hub (especially heavy trucks and large and medium-sized buses), bumper, base beam and other small aluminum forgings, among which aluminum wheel hub is the most widely used aluminum forgings, mainly used in buses, trucks and heavy trucks. In recent years, it has also been used in small and medium-sized cars, motorcycles and limousines. According to statistics, in recent years, the annual growth rate of aluminum wheel hub in the world has reached more than 20%, and the current usage has reached billions.

China has just started, but large automobile enterprises such as FAW and SAIC Motor are beginning to research and develop. With the increase of automobile production (in 2010, China's automobile production is expected to reach 15 million vehicles/year, and the world's automobile production may exceed 70 million vehicles/year), the consumption of aluminum wheels and other aluminum forgings will be amazing. At present, the manufacturing methods of aluminum alloy wheels for automobiles commonly used in industry mainly include casting method and forging method.

Casting method is divided into gravity casting and pressure casting. The wheel products produced by casting method have poor density and uniformity, and their mechanical properties are also low. The manufacturing accuracy (thickness) is also poor, and the subsequent processing volume is large, which can not meet the performance requirements of lightweight passenger cars with high reliability, and can not meet the requirements of impact resistance, fatigue life and bearing capacity of wheels of commercial vehicles.

Aluminum alloy automobile wheels produced by forging method have the advantages of good mechanical properties, high structural strength, light weight (thin wall), high impact resistance, excellent corrosion resistance and fatigue strength, which can meet the requirements of commercial vehicle wheels. Therefore, they have gradually become the first choice accessories for automobiles, especially for high-class cars and large, heavy and luxurious passenger cars and trucks, and have a tendency to gradually replace cast aluminum alloy wheels. For example, the 6061T6 automobile wheel hub produced by Alcoa with 80MN forging hydraulic press has the same grain deformation direction as the stress direction, and its strength, toughness and fatigue strength are much higher than those of cast alloy wheels, while its weight is reduced by 20% and its elongation can reach 12% ~ 16%. Moreover, it has quite high shock absorption and bearing capacity and strong impact resistance.

In addition, the forged aluminum wheel has high density, no looseness, pinholes and no air holes on the surface, and has good surface treatment performance. Uniform coating, high adhesion, harmonious and beautiful color. Forged aluminum wheels have good machinability. Thus, forged aluminum wheels have the characteristics of light weight, high specific strength, excellent toughness, fatigue resistance and corrosion resistance, good thermal conductivity, easy machining, good roundness, impact resistance, safe use, easy maintenance, low use cost, energy saving, environmental protection, beautiful and durable, etc. They are ideal materials for transportation rotating parts such as automobile wheels and have broad application prospects.

(5) In the energy and power industry, aluminum forgings will gradually replace some steel forgings to make frames, guard rings, moving rings and stationary rings, coal transport wheels, LNG flanges, fuel racks of nuclear power plants, etc., which are generally large and medium-sized forgings.

(6) Ships and warships use aluminum forgings as frames, moving rings, stationary rings, battery racks, etc.

(7) In the machinery manufacturing industry, it is mainly used to make frames, sliders, connecting rods and spools in woodworking machinery and textile machinery, etc. Only aluminum forgings for spools for textile machines are needed in China every year, weighing more than 1,500 tons.

(8) In the mold industry, aluminum alloy forgings are used to make rubber molds, shoe molds and other light industrial molds.

(9) In transportation machinery and locomotive industry, aluminum alloy forgings are widely used as cylinders and piston skirts. Tens of thousands of forgings such as cylinders and piston skirts of 4032 alloy are consumed every year in China alone.

(10) Other aspects, such as electronic communication, household appliances, cultural and sports equipment, have also begun to use aluminum forgings instead of forgings made of steel, copper and other materials.

conclusion

(1) Forging production is one of the important ways to provide blanks of mechanical parts to various industrial departments, and it plays an important role in the sustained and high-speed development of national economy and the modernization of national defense and military industry.

(2) Because aluminum alloy forgings have a series of excellent characteristics, their application scope is more and more extensive, with huge market potential and good application prospects. In particular, it has broad application prospect in manufacturing key parts of aircraft and automobile wheels.

(3) Forging production has a long history, but its development speed is relatively slow compared with calendering and extrusion. In recent decades, aluminum alloy forging production and technology have made great progress abroad, but there is still a big gap between China and foreign countries. We should improve the technological level and equipment level of aluminum alloy forging production in China as soon as possible, and pay close attention to building several 60 Mn ~ 800 Mn modern aluminum alloy forging hydraulic press production lines to narrow the gap with foreign advanced levels, meet the needs of domestic and foreign markets to the greatest extent, and move forward to a powerful aluminum forging country.

Link-B2B is a professional supplier listing service platform which will provide high quality and trustworthy supplier list to international buyers. If you are looking for aluminum alloy forgings  suppliers, feel free to visit Link-B2B.com and send a request.