Modelling of Powder Removal for Additive Manufacture Postprocessing
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper is well written and structure. The research topic is focused on a relevant postprocessing issue when powder bed AM technologies are used, contributing to scientific knowledge and post-process improvements. The paper is accepted after minor revisions highlighted throughout the text:
Highlight in blue: formatting issues. Subtitles are sometimes written with an upper letter in all words and others only in the first word of the subtitles; please uniformize.
Highlight in yellow: minor changes, suggestions and corrections. Values should be separated from units by a space; change to be done throughout the text. There are abbreviations not define in the manuscript and not present in the abbreviation list; please added. There are equations there are not mentioned in the manuscript text, considered in do it to be more clear the logical reasoning. Please uniformize Aluminium powder; sometimes the text appears aluminium other Aluminium. Please rewrite van der Walls as Van der Walls. Please uniformize 2d to 2D and 3d to 3D. Uniformize the f of frequency: sometimes f other f. Please uniformize degrees/º. Seconds can be abbreviate to s, for example, 2.8 s (line 462), since it is a SI unit; but, minutes and hours should not be abbreviated. Please considered another letter for the wall that not be used as a physical symbol (W: symbol of work), maybe w.
Highlight in pink: misunderstanding issues; please clarify or rewrite.
Comments:
Please add the type and manufacturer of the equipment used to obtain the experimental data.
Line 4: I suggest changing SLS to powder bed fusion (PBF) or more specific laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) to accomplish the AM terminology determined by ISO and ASTM standards (ISO / ASTM52921 - 13(2019))
Line 24: please add literature.
Line 32, 33: the sentences are not correlated. Would you please explain the relationship between the two sentences? Or consider rewriting.
Line 151: In the last phrase, I think that the begging is missing. It can not be started with the reference.
Line 175: Considered to change «In [38], Steuben et al .....» for «Steuben et al [38].....»
Line 331: Please avoid mentioning the manufacturer company; eliminate LPW.
Line 338. Add a comma after However.
Line 388. Is 0.1 Hz the equipment sensitivity? Is this a significant change in the experiments made?
Line 474: Please explain how "manipulation sequence clearly the effect of the corners"? By observing Figure 9 from is not clear for me; it depends on mass and manipulation conditions.
Figures
Figure 7: have two schemes; please identify them properly (a and b).
Figures 3, 4, 6, 8, 11: The figure description is in the figure and not in the legend.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Please see attached file
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
In this work "Modelling of Powder Removal for Additive Manufacture Postprocessing" the authors investigated the possible ways for simulation of powder removal in metal additively manufactured complex structures.
The model was realized and demonstrated on the example of a complex duct.
- lines 16-17 "Powder bed fusion methods are one of the main groups of Additive Manufacturing methods appropriate for metal forming" - the reference is missing here to ASTM Terminology standard or to some other source.
- I suppose that in modern methodology SLS (sintering) is used only for polymer-based materials. For metals it is usually called SLM (melting) since the physical process that occurs is melting nor sintering.
- Figure 4 is mentioned in the text before figure 3, please check and order figures numbers properly.
- Paragraph 1.1 is not clear. ESPecially it is not clear how it is related to additive manufacturing processes, where powders are spherical with stable high flowability and determining a range of particle size.
- How the model can take into account the issue of reused powders and morphological changes of the particles? https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addma.2018.06.003
- You should specify that the issue of powder removal in SLS/SLM is crucial for thin inner channels less than 1-2 mm. But generally, this issue is more challenging for another powder bed fusion process - Electron Beam Melting.
- Can the model be adjusted for Electron Beam Melting?
Author Response
Please see attached file
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
