Review Reports

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Title: Effect of T6 Heat Treatment on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of 1.5wt.%SiCp/Al5Si1Cu0.5Mg Aluminum Matrix Composite

Submitted manuscript entitled “Effect of T6 Heat Treatment on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of 1.5wt.%SiCp/Al5Si1Cu0.5Mg Aluminum Matrix Composite” describes in details the effect of T6 heat treatment on the microstructure and properties of Al5Si1Cu0.5Mg aluminum alloy matrix and 1.5wt.%SiCp/Al5Si1Cu0.5Mg composite. Topic is very interesting and I recommend it to publication. I think chapter is written in good language. Technique, technology and research methods used in the work are adequate. Methods and obtained results prove founded thesis and show originality of the manuscript.

Topic is very interesting and I recommend it to publication, but some small revision of paper is needed.

Figure 5, there are two figures with small and large magnification, the boundaries between these fugures blend together, making the photo a bit illegible

Figure 7b is very bad quality, it is difficult to read the peaks in the drawing

Figure 9d, similar comment as to figure 5

Author Response

Dear Editor and Reviewers

The revisions suggested by the reviewers are very professional and detailed. We benefit much from these. It is important for us to improve the ability of research. We have revised conscientiously the paper. The changes of this manuscript have been highlighted by using the "Track Changes" function in Microsoft Word. The responses to all comments by the editorial office and the referees are provided (point by point) as below:

Reviewer 1:

Figure 5, there are two figures with small and large magnification, the boundaries between these figures blend together, making the photo a bit illegible.

Response: Thank for your guidance. These figures have been modified and the magnification has been unified.

 

Figure 7b is very bad quality, it is difficult to read the peaks in the drawing.

Response: Thank for your guidance. In another article of correspondence author published in 2018, the figure7b has been used. Thus, the figure has been deleted in this article.

 

Figure 9d, similar comment as to figure 5.

Response: Thank for your guidance. The figure has been modified and the magnification has been unified.

Reviewer 2 Report

referee report
metals-624771
Effect of T6 Heat Treatment on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of 1.5wt.%SiCp/Al5Si1Cu0.5Mg Aluminum Matrix
Composite
Xin Li, Hong Yan, Zhi-Wei Wang, Ning Li, Jian-Long Liu, Qiao Nie

This manuscript reports on the effect of T6 heat treatment (Is it necessary to use a commonly unknown term in the title
of the paper?) on the properties of Al-alloys. This is an interesting topic,
regarding the present use of these materials in industry. Therefore, the topic is well suited for Metals.
The manuscript is properly arranged and properly written. The figures need, however, some attention as detailed below.
Furthermore, it is obvious that there is a kind of own language in this field, which is difficult to be understood from
less specialized readers. So, it is necessary to properly explain the terms like "T6 heat treatment", etc.

It took me some time to figure out that SiCp stands for Siliciumcarbide nanoparticles. In all cases, SiCp is NOT a chemical
formula, so please write it properly. This also applies for the title of the paper.
Furthermore, it is not good style in chemistry to write Si1, but then only Mg. Is Si really 1, or should there be some more
proper number?
The term "T6 heat treatment" is finally explained in the main text, but it is used in the title and as well in the abstract,
where no explanations are provided. When the title/abstract are included in a database, this has no information except someone
would explicitly search for "T6". So, please write the title and abstract more properly.

Several points in the manuscript need attention prior to publication:
# The English requires some improvement.
# There should always be a space between a physical quantity and its unit. Please check the entire text and graphs.
# There should always be a space between text and a reference.
# Please define abbreviations on their first occurence in the text.
# Please write all chemical formulae in a proper way including subscripts.
# When citing an author in the main text, do not include any prename(s).
# SEM images: Provide reasonably large and visible scale bars for the images shown (for dark images, please use white color), and
remove all superfluous information.

Please provide all experimental details of the metallographic specimen preparation, the details of the electron microscopes (including imaging voltage, current,...).

# All EDS graphs are just screenshots from the computer screen, and thus, are not acceptable as figures. Export the data, and
draw a proper figure.
# Why Fig. 3 is so dark? Apply some image processing to show the message more clear. The same applies for Fig. 6.
# Fig. 7 (a): It makes no sense to show an inset which is hardly readable. Make it as large as the figure, then one can see
what is going on.
Overall, the manuscript reports interesting data. The topic is well suited for the Special Issue, but
the points needed above require clarification.

Author Response

Dear Editor and Reviewers

The revisions suggested by the reviewers are very professional and detailed. We benefit much from these. It is important for us to improve the ability of research. We have revised conscientiously the paper. The changes of this manuscript have been highlighted by using the "Track Changes" function in Microsoft Word. The responses to all comments by the editorial office and the referees are provided (point by point) as below:

Reviewer 2:

The English requires some improvement.

Response:  We have made a moderate revision of this article, and the English has been improved to a certain extent.

 

There should always be a space between a physical quantity and its unit. Please check the entire text and graphs.

Response: We have checked the entire text and graphs, and ensured that there is a space between a physical quantity and its unit.

 

There should always be a space between text and a reference.

Response: We have checked the entire text and graphs, and ensured that there is a space between text and a reference.

 

Please define abbreviations on their first occurence in the text.

Response:  We have defined abbreviations on their first occurence in the text.

 

Please write all chemical formulae in a proper way including subscripts.

Response:  For silicon carbide particle, the previous expression is SiCp in this article. Now, we have changed it to SiC particle. SiC and Al₂O₃ are abbreviations of silicon carbide and aluminum oxide, respectively. Al5Si1Cu0.5Mg is a kind of cast alloy, the nominal chemical composition of which is in weight percentage as follows: 5 Si, 1 Cu, 0.5Mg and the balance Al. In different countries, this alloy has different codes. For example, in America its code is 355.0, but in China its code is ZL105. In order to make it easy to know the alloy chemical composition for readers, we use the expression of Al5Si1Cu0.5Mg for this alloy. These kinds of expression in chemical formulae are common in many article titles or contents. Such as:

Ma, ; Samuel, E.; Mohamed, A.M.A.; Samuel, A.M.; Samuel, F.H.; Doty, H.W. Influence of aging treatments and alloying additives on the hardness of Al–11Si–2.5Cu–Mg alloys. Mater. Des. 2010, 31, 3791-3803. Amerioon, A.; Emamy, M.; Ashuri, G.H. Investigation the effect of Al-5Ti-1B grain refiner and T6 heat treatment on tensile properties of Al-8%Mg. Procedia Mater. Sci. 2015, 11, 32-37. Zhang,G.; Cheng, H.Fa.; Huang, X.M.; Wu, J.; Hu, Z.J. Preparation of SiCp/ZL105 composite by intensity ultrasonic vibration under semi-solid temperature. Spec. Cast. Nonferrous Alloys 2011, 31, 363-366. Sekar, K.; Allesu, K.; Joseph, M.A. Effect of T6 heat treatment in the microstructure and mechanical properties of A356 reinforced with nano Al2O3 particles by combination effect of stir and squeeze casting. Procedia Mater. Sci. 2014, 5, 444-453. Costa, T.A.; Dias, M.; Gomes, L.G.; Rocha, O.L.; Garcia, A. Effect of solution time in T6 heat treatment on microstructure and hardness of a directionally solidified Al-Si-Cu alloy. J. Alloys Compd. 2016, 683, 485-494. Ceschini, L.; Morri, A.; Morri, A.; Toschi, S.; Johansson, S.; Seifeddine, S. Effect of microstructure and overaging on the tensile behavior at room and elevated temperature of 5Mg-T6 cast aluminum alloy. Mater. Des. 2015, 83, 626-634. Li, N.; Yan, H.; Wang, Z.W. Effects of heat treatment on the tribological properties of SiCp/Al-5Si-1Cu-0.5Mg composite processed by electromagnetic stirring method. Sci. 2018, 8, 372-386. Knowles, J.; Jiang, X.; Galano, M.; Audebert, F. Microstructure and mechanical properties of 6061 Al alloy based composites with SiC nanoparticles. J. Alloys Compd. 2014, 615, s401-s405. Chu, H.S.; Liu, K.S.; Yeh, J.W. Study of 6061-Al2O3p composites produced by reciprocasting extrusion. Mater. Trans. A 2000, 31, 2587-2596. Sheu, C.Y.; Lin, S.J. Aging behavior of SiCp-reinforced AA 7075 composites. Mater. Sci. 1997, 32, 1741-1747.

 

When citing an author in the main text, do not include any prename(s).

Response:  We have checked the entire text and graphs, and ensured that the authors cited in the main text do not include any prename(s).

 

SEM images: Provide reasonably large and visible scale bars for the images shown (for dark images, please use white color), and remove all superfluous information.

Response: We have modified the scale bars of SEM images and removed all superfluous information.

 

Please provide all experimental details of the metallographic specimen preparation, the details of the electron microscopes (including imaging voltage, current,...).

Response: We have provided all experimental details of the metallographic specimen preparation. In another article of correspondence author published in 2018, the previous TEM image in figure 7 in this article has been used, thus TEM image has been deleted and the details of TEM has not been given.

 

All EDS graphs are just screenshots from the computer screen, and thus, are not acceptable as figures. Export the data, and draw a proper figure. 

Response:

 

Why Fig. 3 is so dark? Apply some image processing to show the message more clear. The same applies for Fig. 6.

Response: Fig.3 and Fig.6 are dark, the reason of which is related with material and the technology of SEM operator. We have applied some image processing to show the message more clear.

 

7 (a): It makes no sense to show an inset which is hardly readable. Make it as large as the figure, then one can see what is going on.

Response:  Fig. 7 (a) has been deleted.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors have dealt well with the comments, so, together with the additions made, the manuscript is now suitable for publication.