Selected Aspects of Modelling and Design Calculations of Roller Mills

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Issues concerning the modification of mill designs, especially in terms of improving performance characteristics, are among the important ones due to the very low efficiency and high energy demand of the process, among other reasons. The possibility of effective modeling of the grinding process can bring a number of benefits. The authors proposed introducing an additional dynamic response factor in the model related to the rotation of the roller around a fixed point. The authors indicated that as the mass of the roll and its angular velocity increase, the value of the response increases approximately as a quadratic function. They indicated the possibility of implementing a mathematical model that verifies the design assumptions.

Minor suggestions I would like to make:

- In the affiliation of the second author the address of the university is given as Ka-liskiego, it should be Kaliskiego

- In my opinion, the abstract should not contain detailed data on, for example, the percentage of the total load of the times, these data should be in the summary.

- In the description of the third equation (3) we have

- q - contant loading of the roller's axis

Should be

- q - constant loading of the roller's axis

Author Response

Thank you very much for doing the review. The suggested corrections have been incorporated in full. The introduction has been corrected and changes have been made directly to the content of the article.

The corrected article has been put back into the system.

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear editor, considering the relevance of Sustainability, I consider that the manuscript is not acceptable to publish in this journal:
Sustainabilit: is an international, cross-disciplinary, scholarly, peer-reviewed and open access journal of environmental, cultural, economic, and social sustainability of human beings. It provides an advanced forum for studies related to sustainability and sustainable development.

Author Response

Thank you for sending the review.

The reviewer's remark concerned only the subject matter of the article in terms of the thematic area of the Sustainability journal, does not take into account the fact that the article was addressed to the special edition „Special Issue "Sustainability and Eco-innovations in Mechanical Processing Systems of Materials: Comminution, Agglomeration, Recycling" where the key words are, among the others: mills, grinding, energy assessment, mechanical processing systems.

Reviewer 3 Report

The proposed research « Selected aspects of modelling and design calculations of the designed roller mills» falls within the scope of Sustainability. According to the reviewer’s opinion, minor revisions are required in order to accept this research study for publication in Sustainability. Please, comply with the following suggestions and comments:

Comment 1: The paper is in general well accompanied of clear explanations. I think that some additional figures would help to the better analysis of the subject.

Comment 2: Questions that need to be answered: Why your study is important? How it extends the existing knowledge on the issue/topic? Concluding remarks – authors must elaborate more on what is their contribution to the literature.

Comment 3: Finally, when you submit the corrected version, please do check thoroughly, in order to avoid grammar, syntax or structure/presentation flaws - please seek for professional English proofreading services or ask a native English-speaking colleague of yours in order to refine and improve the English in your paper.

Author Response

Thank you very much for reading the article thoroughly and for doing the review.

In response to the reviewer's question as to why the case study discussed in the article is so important, it should be unequivocally stated that the computational model presented in the article takes into account the gyroscopic phenomenon taking place during the crushing process in the mill, which was named in the article as an additional component of the dynamic response. Taking this into account, we obtain the actual load of the bowl in the mill. And then, knowing this actual load, we can correctly select the structural parameters of the mill's working unit, which will function properly under the load of the acting forces. In short, taking into account the gyroscopic phenomenon, we obtain a full picture of loads (forces acting) in the working unit.

This information was also included in the abstract, as well as in the conclusion of the article. In the chapter Result and discussion in relation to the available literature, the authors commented on the difference of their achievements in relation to the models presented by other researchers.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Dear authors, thank you for the clarification made. Considering what I consider that the article is well structured, the results are supported with tables and graphs that allow their interpretation to be fluid.
My main concern is the lack of discussion. The discussion in a scientific article consists of contrasting the results obtained with other similar investigations. This I consider to be essential in a research article. For this reason, I suggest authors include strengthening their manuscript, particularly in this section.

Author Response

Thank you for making this review. The suggested changes have been made directly in the text of the article.