Neck-spinning has the advantages of short manufacturing cycle, high process flexibility, good forming ability and low production cost. It has been widely used to produce variable-diameter tubes in automotive and aerospace fields, such as gas cylinders and corrugated tube. However, the neck-spinning is a complex local loading and incremental forming process, which leads to severe local inhomogeneous deformation and the deformation state dynamically changes with loading region. These complex forming characteristics make it very diffi‐ cult to predict the forming results and optimize the processing parameters in the neck-spinning. This paper reviews some typical advances on the investigations of neck-spinning, including the various deformation state, profile deflection, uneven wall thickness distribution, prediction model for wall thickness variation and process optimization method. Besides, some existing key challenges for the precision neck-spinning were outlined, such as the accurate prediction model for the wall thickness variation, the determination of maximum diameter reduction, the dynamic optimization of roller trace and processing parameters.

The rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) technology makes it possible for achieving intelligent forming. It will bring great breakthrough of material forming technology, realizing the unmanned watching, intelligent processing design and intelligent control during forming process. Moreover, it can greatly improve the forming accuracy, mechanical properties, forming efficiency and economic benefits, and promote the continuous emergence of new forming technology. Thus, the intelligent forming technology, integrating AI technology and advanced forming technology, has become an international research focus. This paper reviews the recent developments of intelligent forming technology from four kinds of common forming technology, i.e., intelligent casting, intelligent plastic forming, intelligent welding, and intelligent additive manufacturing. Moreover, the current research issues and future trends of intelligent forming technology are put forward at the end of the paper.