Initial holding time dependent warm deformation and post-ageing precipitation in an AA7075-T4 aluminum alloy

•Warm deformation at 180 ℃ significantly enhances the formability of AA7075-T4 alloy.•The through-process microstructure evolution during warm compression is revealed.•Initial soaking of 10−30 s benefits the balance of warm-deformability and post-ageing.•A TTP sketch considering the reversion of clusters and reprecipitation is proposed.