Aluminum alloy 5083 is of interest to manufacturers due to the combination of its moderate strength, good corrosion resistance and good fusion weldability. In addition, friction stir welds in 1-in thick 5083 aluminum plates have been shown to result in joints with high ductility. This is primarily due to a uniform, low-hardness, defect-free, refined microstructure region across the stir zone, which results in part from the minimal aging in this alloy during the typical temperatures and times experienced during stir welding. The typical elongation of 5083 base plate is 8-15%. Friction stir welding has been shown to increase the weld transverse elongation of this material to as high as 30% in a 2-in gage length. The high ductility of the friction stir weld makes alloy 5083 attractive for friction stir processing (FSP) accomplished by making bead-on-plate welds to produce desirable microstructure in local areas. Enhanced formability of FSP 5083 makes possible cost-effective fabrication of structures by replacement of corner welds between plates with bends in a single plate. In this paper, 5083 plate was used to demonstrate the benefits of friction stir processing. Full and partial penetration FS-processed 1-in 5083 plates were successfully wrapped around a 0.75-in radius plunger/die, representing a maximum tensile true strain of approximately 35%. This is significant because the corresponding base plate (non-FSP) samples failed during bending and such bends could only be possible in base metal if a 2.5-in radius plunger was used. It was found that the springback in base and welded plate specimens was no greater than 2 degrees per side in all tests.