Robot-based automatic placement equipment can efficiently manufacture complex composite components, which has attracted great attention from the aerospace industry at home and abroad. According to the current research status of robotic efficient automatic placement, the development history of robotic automatic placement equipment is introduced. Meanwhile, the characteristics and development of the fiber placement head and robot are summarized. Besides, the related software technologies and applications at home and abroad are analyzed. Finally, the development trend of robotic automatic placement equipment to achieve more efficient placement is prospected.

    In order to solve the problems of cracking caused by poor plasticity and large spring-back affecting dimensional precision during cold stamping of high aluminum alloy sheet, a novel technology named hot forming and quenching integrated process has been developed. The technology combined hot forming and quenching together in one operation where the sheet is rapidly transferred to the forming die after solution treatment and then in-die quenching is performed and the strength is finally improved by aging treatment. In this paper, firstly latest developments in hot stamping process for aluminum alloy sheet are summarized, and then some research achievements of hot stamping process experiments are introduced, which formability of hot stamping and solid solution aging strengthening are described in details. At last some progresses about the hot stamping die technology are presented from the view of the friction mechanism and interfacial heat transfer.

    Titanium alloys have been widely used as lightweight and high–strength structural materials in the aeronautical industry. Their forming and processing have always attracted much attention. It has been proven that the application of thermal hydrogen treatment technology to titanium alloys helps to improve their hot workability and optimize microstructural properties. In this paper, the research progress of superplastic forming/diffusion bonding technology of hydrogenated titanium alloy is reviewed. The influence of thermal hydrogen treatment on the microstructure, superplasticity and diffusion bonding of different kinds of titanium alloys is introduced. The influence mechanism is summarized. It provides a reference for industrial applications of superplastic forming/diffusion bonding technology of hydrogenated titanium alloy.

    Due to good comprehensive performance, fiber metal laminates (FMLs) have been applied more and more in the fields of aviation and aerospace. However, forming technology has become one of the main difficulties limiting the applications of FMLs. In this paper, the forming technologies of FMLs are reviewed. The effect factors on the formability of FMLs and main defects are analyzed. Then the research progress of the forming technology of curved parts at home and abroad as well as several new recently proposed forming technologies of FMLs are introduced. Finally, the existing problems and bottleneck technologies of FMLs plastic forming are analyzed.

    This paper mainly introduces the selective laser melting (SLM) forming technology of cast aluminum alloy. The research status of SLM forming process and heat treatment process of SLM forming parts of ZL1××–ZL4×× series cast aluminum alloys at home and abroad, as well as their engineering application in the field of aviation industry were summarized and analyzed. In addition, the exiting problems and development trend of SLM forming technology for casting aluminum alloy were discussed further.

    In this paper, the effects of pitch and spiral diameter on the forming process of 6061 aluminum alloy spiral tube are studied by numerical simulation and experiment. It is found that when the pitch is constant, the increase of the spiral diameter will reduce the cross-section distortion of the spiral tube; When the spiral diameter is constant, the increase of the pitch will aggravate the cross-section distortion of the spiral tube, and the outward offset of the neutral layer of the wall thickness will gradually decrease as the spiral radius increases. Based on the numerical simulation results, the actual spiral tube forming effect is good, the spiral is smooth and close to the standard circle, and the appearance size and section distortion are in good agreement with the numerical simulation results. It is a good proof of the good predictability of the numerical simulation for the actual experiment.

    A heterojunction of 7075 aluminum alloy and TC4 titanium alloy was obtained by vacuum electron beam technique. The macroscopic morphology, microstructure and element distribution of the welded joints were observed by metallographic microscope, scanning electron microscope and energy spectrum analyzer. The formation process of intermetallic compounds in the transition layer and its influencing factors were also analyzed. The test results show that the microstructure of the aluminum alloy side of the fusion zone is dominated by columnar crystals and equiaxed grains, and a small amount of fine–grained structure is formed. The α–phase and α' phase of the needle–like or lamellar phase are precipitated on the titanium alloy side. Since the free energy of TiAl₃ is the smallest, the main component of the intermetallic compound formed at the interface between the aluminum weld and the titanium weld is TiAl₃. The insufficient diffusion of elements leads to the formation of a small amount of intermediate phases such as TiAl and TiAl₂, and increases with the heat input. The intermetallic compound layer gradually thickens, but the type of the compound does not change. The test results provide reference for the study of welding interface of aluminum–titanium dissimilar alloy.

    Compared with the traditional metal tank, the space composite cryotank can achieve weight reductions up to 20%–40%, which provides the possibility for the research and development of the next generation of low-cost, highcapacity and recoverable spacecraft. The inevitability of the development of space composite cryotank is systematically analyzed. Furthermore, the achievements and problems in this field in developed countries during recent 30 years are introduced from the aspects of demand backgrounds, parameters of structures and processes of manufacturing, and some solutions to these problems are proposed. The development and research of composite cryotank in China are also prospected.

    The composite fuselage is one of the important structures of the new large commercial aircraft. The manufacturing process directly affects the product quality consistency, production capacity, cost, etc. The traditional manual-based manufacturing technology cannot meet the current requirements. In order to verify the automatic forming process of the large-size composite hat-section stringer reinforced panel, a multi-faceted research and verification were carried out, through the technologies of ATL, AFP, the laminated slip, the stringer positioning. The process of automatic forming and other processes has completed the manufacture of the large panel. Studies have shown that the selected panel manufacturing process technology has low risk and high quality consistency, which provides the basis for the automated manufacturing of large-size panel.

    Due to the 4J29 Kovar alloy’s similar character of difficulty to be cut with austenitic stainless steel, the quality of holes obtained by traditional drilling is poor. In order to study the factors affecting the quality of 4J29 Kovar alloy drilling and improve the quality of drilling, traditional drilling and ultrasonic vibration-assisted drilling experiments of 4J29 alloy under different processing parameters were carried out, and the drilling axial force, hole diameter error and hole wall roughness were measured. It is found that under different processing parameters (cutting speed v=0.314–0.942m/ s, feed speed f=10–30mm/min), ultrasonic vibration-assisted drilling can reduce the drilling axial force by about 18.45%, with an average decrease of 35.37N. Ultrasonic vibration-assisted drilling can improve drilling accuracy, and the average hole diameter error is reduced about 17.9μm, with a decrease by 31.5%. Ultrasonic vibration-assisted drilling can improve surface quality. For the arithmetic mean deviation R_a of contour, ultrasonic vibration-assisted drilling reduces the average surface quality by about 28.4%, which is 0.4862μm, and the average maximum contour height R_z is decreased by 20.0% (about 2.4940μm). The experiments have shown that ultrasonic vibration-assisted drilling of 4J29 Kovar alloy has more advantages than traditional drilling, and can contribute to higher quality drilling holes.