Surface Preparation for Coating and Erosion MRR of SS 304 Using Silicon Carbide Abrasive Jet

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript entitled " Surface Preparation for Coating and Erosion MRR of SS 304 Using Silicon Carbide Abrasive Jet " The current work aims for effective surface roughening and erosion MRR of SS304 work surface using SiC abrasive jet erosion and optimization of the process parameters. The response surface approach is used to design and conduct the studies using the Box-Behnken design method. Although the reviewers found serious problems with this manuscript not being published in the Lubricants. There are more issues that need to be resolved before publication. Detailed comments are provided below.

Comment 1: In Figure 1, when describing the overview of the current work, the role of the arrow in the figure is vague and does not refer well, and the first article of the novelty of the work is not clearly reflected in the text.

Comment 2: It is recommended that the paper include a schematic diagram of the abrasive injection equipment, Figure 2 physical diagram, the picture quality is low, it is difficult to make the reader understand the working principle.

Comment 3: The term "MRR" in the title is not explained until Table 3, which makes it difficult for the reader to understand the focus of the work.

Comment 4: The format of the figure notes is not uniform. For example, Figure 5 vs. Figure 4. It is recommended that the formatting in the text be carefully revised.

Comment 5: It is recommended that Figure 5 be placed in the "Materials and Methods" .

Comment 6: The authors use mathematical models and other tools to make the simulation work more systematic, but there is less comparison with actual experimental work and the overall data is less convincing.

Comment 7: CONCLUSIONS needs concise in it, as it's more of an afterthought. The authors are suggested to highlight important findings and include afterthought of this work.

Comment 8: The format of references has errors and the format of citations is not uniform

Comment 9: In introduction, the author wrote “Al2O3 is a good choice for micro-abrasive jet machining, abrasive jet surface polishing, and etching”, why still choose to use SiC?

Comment 10: It is suggested that the author revise it in depth, and the correspondent should be personally and carefully read and revision.

Comment 11: The work of other researchers should be added to the Introduction section. Indicate what is the research importance of this work.

Comment 12: Table 4 lists the material removal rate (MRR) and average surface roughness of the specimens at different parameter combinations. It is suggested to increase the number of test groups to make the data more detailed and support the model building.

 

Author Response

Comment 1: In Figure 1, when describing the overview of the current work, the role of the arrow in the figure is vague and does not refer well, and the first article of the novelty of the work is not clearly reflected in the text.

Ans: Figure 1 is removed as graphical abstract has been incorporated.

Comment 2: It is recommended that the paper include a schematic diagram of the abrasive injection equipment, Figure 2 physical diagram, the picture quality is low, it is difficult to make the reader understand the working principle.

Ans: We have worked on our in-house made machine. I have a ready separate manuscript on detail design of the machine and abrasive flow controller (calibration) and its various applications which will be communicated for publication shortly. More clear photograph of the present set up has replaced in figure 1.

Comment 3: The term "MRR" in the title is not explained until Table 3, which makes it difficult for the reader to understand the focus of the work.

Ans:  It is added in the section in keywords. Nomenclature is added before references.

Comment 4: The format of the figure notes is not uniform. For example, Figure 5 vs. Figure 4. It is recommended that the formatting in the text be carefully revised.

Ans: Done

Comment 5: It is recommended that Figure 5 be placed in the "Materials and Methods" .

Ans: Done

Comment 6: The authors use mathematical models and other tools to make the simulation work more systematic, but there is less comparison with actual experimental work and the overall data is less convincing.

Ans: The comparison between Actual experimental data and overall analysis has been done and it is added in the manuscript.

Comment 7: CONCLUSIONS needs concise in it, as it's more of an afterthought. The authors are suggested to highlight important findings and include afterthought of this work

Ans: Done

 

Comment 8: The format of references has errors and the format of citations is not uniform

Ans: Done

 

Comment 9: In introduction, the author wrote “Al2O3 is a good choice for microabrasive jet machining, abrasive jet surface polishing, and etching”, why still choose to use SiC?

Ans: The above statement is removed from the manuscript as Al₂O₃ not considered in this study.

SiC grits are more irregular, sharper, harder and cheaper than Al₂O₃. SiC would be more effective for surface preparation and MRR than Al₂O_3.

Comment 10: It is suggested that the author revise it in depth, and the correspondent should be personally and carefully read and revision.

Ans: Done

 

Comment 11: The work of other researchers should be added to the Introduction section. Indicate what is the research importance of this work.

Ans: Importance of the work is reflected in the graphical abstract.

 

Comment 12: Table 4 lists the material removal rate (MRR) and average surface roughness of the specimens at different parameter combinations. It is suggested to increase the number of test groups to make the data more detailed and support the model building.

Ans:  As per Box-Behnken design method, 27 sets of combination has occurred. The authors repeated the experiments twice of each set of combinations.

Reviewer 2 Report

In this investigation he authors have made an attempt to investigate "Surface Preparation for Coating and Erosion MRR of SS 304 Using Silicon Carbide Abrasive Jet" the article needs significant improvements and I invite the authors to address the the following comments, do additional experiments and suitably modify/ revise the manuscript.

1. Why the authors did not consider angle of impact of the grits/ angle of the substrate?  Angle of impact is an important factor that must be included in the DOE and analyzed.

2. The authors should measure the velocity instead of indicating the pressure. The authors could refer the following article for determining the velocity of the grits "Erosion of atmospheric plasma sprayed rare earth oxide coatings under air suspended corundum particles: for velocity measurements (Ceramics International, Volume 39, Issue 1, January 2013, Pages 649-672).

3. The authors should examine the embedment of the grits on the substrate surface post grit blasting and add it as a response in the DOE/ analysis. This analysis is important because the interface/ grit contamination is an important factor/ criteria in the analysis of microstructures in the thermal spray industry.

4. The authors also should do sensitivity analysis for the empirical relationships.

 

 

Author Response

 

1. Why the authors did not consider angle of impact of the grits/ angle of the substrate? Angle of impact is an important factor that must be included in the DOE and analyzed.

Ans: Surface preparation was our main focus of this investigation. Hence, 90-degree impact angle is appropriate for surface roughening where maximum indentation of grit is expected with lesser material removal. Beyond this situation (if the impact angle is reduced and gas pressure is increased), it would be favourable for erosion material removal (ductile materials). We are working on abrasive jet micro-machining where the impact angle is a part of an investigation and will be communicated next phase.

 

2. The authors should measure the velocity instead of indicating the pressure. The authors could refer the following article for determining the velocity of the grits "Erosion of atmospheric plasma sprayed rare earth oxide coatings under air suspended corundum particles: for velocity measurements (Ceramics International, Volume 39, Issue 1, January 2013, Pages 649-672).

Ans: The expert's studies [added ref 31, 32] are based on the air-jet erosion tester which can possibly measure the particle velocity before erosion impact that has made the explanation of erosion easier. In general, industrial air-jet systems are used in various applications without such instruments to reduce additional costs. The air-jet process parameters like pressure, nozzle diameter, SOD, etc. could be synchronized with erosion-velocity empirical relation (Equation 5 from ref 31) which may give more benefits for the industrial users. The above-suggested paper is well referred [31].

 

3. The authors should examine the embedment of the grits on the substrate surface post grit blasting and add it as a response in the DOE/ analysis. This analysis is important because the interface/ grit contamination is an important factor/ criteria in the analysis of microstructures in the thermal spray industry.

Ans: We did not observe significant grit embedment on the work (SS304) surfaces. It might be due to bigger SiC grits (100, 150 and 200 microns) causing less indentation which is evident from the Ra value of about 1.3 microns. 

 

4. The authors also should do sensitivity analysis for the empirical relationships.

Ans: Done and include in the manuscript.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The current revised version of the article can be accepted for publication since, the authors have revised the manuscript as directed by the reviewers