Characterization of Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Stellite 6 Part Fabricated by Wire Arc Additive Manufacturing

Round  1

Reviewer 1 Report

In general the manuscript presents some interesting information on WAAM of Stellite6 parts.

In some areas the paper needs to be strenghtened and the conclusions should be more precise.

In the attached document you will find several comments that should be considered.

Overall, after major revisions, I recommend this manuscript for publication.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Point 1: The spelling error, confusing sentence and inappropriate expression about the language.


 Response 1: All of it in this article has been corrected and remarked in red.

Point 2: The proportion of C shows in Table 3.

 Response 2: We have tested the chemical composition in the AM part, and the percentage of C is 1.38(wt.%).

Point 3: The “Mpa” in Figure 7.

 Response 3: We have changed the “Mpa” into “MPa” in this paper.

 Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

The subject of the manuscript is interesting. Experiments were well organised and results are very well presented. So from my point of view I have no concerns about the scientific content of the manuscript.

I have some concerns about typos of difficult to understand sentences.

Always after figure authors include a “dot”. “Figure. 1”…that “dot” must be removed “Figure 1”.

Line 49: “mew” must be “new”

Line 86: There are two consecutive blank spaces between “different” and “processing”.

Lines 89 to 91: The sentence is confusing, please rewrite it in a more clear way.

Lines 91: “relief annealing is 600ºC…” should be “relief annealing process consist on heating up to 600º…”.

Line 92: Use “sample” instead of “block”

Line 95: “heat treatED” instead “heat treatment..”.

Line 96: “in order to detect”… you are not detecting the hardness, you are measuring it “in order to measure…”. Same in line 103 and 163.

Line 97: “strip-like sample with the width of 15mm” should be “strip-like sample, 15 mm wide, was cut out.”.

Line 124: what you mean with “self-protection drug”??

Line 126: “I t” must be “It”.

Line 132: “diffusion in element between” should be “diffusion OF elementS between…”

Line 139: You are saying that the microstructure does not change with the thermal treatment… indicated that that was previously observed… or note it.

Line 145: Remove the “which is” and keep “eutectics, mainly consisted”.

Line 155: what do you mean with “mass of sand”??

Line 157: You are improving the “mechanical performance” instead of the “property performance”.

 Line 168: You said that the hardness increases in region b due to the diffusion of new elements, but why in point “b”, the closest to the substrate, the hardness is lower that in “c”. Explain why this could happen in the text.

Line 190: use “heat treated part”.

Line 190: “the results are presented in the figure” should be “Results are presented in Figure”.

Line 205: “remalting” should be “remelting”.

Line 222: Table 4… Units are “MPa” and not “Mpa”. Typical Microsoft word autocorrection error. On that table also you are using EL with 3 decimal places and you errors have only 2 decimal places. Correct it using 2 significative decimal places for EL…i.e. use “1.790+-0.35” instead “1.787+-0.35”.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 2 Comments

  Point 1: Always after figure authors include a “dot”. “Figure. 1”…that “dot” must be removed “Figure 1”.


 Response 1: All the “dot” after Figure has been deleted.

 Point 2: Line 49:“mew” must be “new".

 Response 2: Spelling error, and the “mew” has been changed to “new”.

 Point 3: Line 86:There are two consecutive blank spaces between “different” and “processing”.

 Response 3: One blank between them has been deleted.

 Point 4: Lines 89 to 91: The sentence is confusing, please rewrite it in a more clear way.

 Response 4: The sentence “The heat treatment part is used to verify whether the residual stress of the WAAM has an effect on the performance of the stellite 6 component, and the fabrication condition is the same as the deposition part except for the stress relief annealing process.”  has been changed to “ The heat treated part,having the same manufacturing parameters with deposition part, is used to verify whether residual stress of the WAAM has an effect on the performance of stellite 6 component”.

 Point 5: Lines 91: “relief annealing is 600ºC…” should be “relief annealing process consist on heating up to 600º…”.

 Response 5: The “relief annealing is 600ºC…”   has been replaced by “relief annealing process consist on heating up to 600º…” .

 Point 6:Line 92: Use “sample” instead of “block”.

 Response 6: The“sample” has been replaced by “block”.

 Point 7:Line 95: “heat treatED” instead “heat treatment..”.

 Response 7: The“heat treatment” has been replaced by “heat treated”.

 Point 8:Line 96: “in order to detect”… you are not detecting the hardness, you are measuring it “in order to measure…”. Same in line 103 and 163.

 Response 8: In these three positions, the “detect” has been changed to “measure”.

Point 9:Line 97: “strip-like sample with the width of 15mm” should be “strip-like sample, 15 mm wide, was cut out.”

 Response 9: “strip-like sample with the width of 15mm” has been replaced by “strip-like sample, 15 mm wide, was cut out.”

 Point 10:Line 124: what you mean with “self-protection drug”??

 Response 10: We have changed it in a more clear way  in that sentence .

 Corrected: “In addition, although the entire additive manufacturing process is carried out under argon protected atmosphere, the surface of the part does not exhibit metallic luster, which is due to the presence of partial volatiles in the flux-cored wire during the AM process.”

 Point 11:Line 126: “I t” must be “It”.

 Response 11: The space in it has been deleted.

 Point 12:Line 132: “diffusion in element between” should be “diffusion OF elementS between…”

 Response 12: The “diffusion in element between” has been changed to “diffusion of elements between”.

 Point 13:Line 139: You are saying that the microstructure does not change with the thermal treatment… indicated that that was previously observed… or note it.

 Response 13: We have observed the microstructure of the heat treated part, and it is the same as that of the deposition one. So we do not discuss it in this article.

 Point 14:Line 145: Remove the “which is” and keep “eutectics, mainly consisted”.

 Response 14: The “Which is” has been removed.

  Point 15:Line 155: what do you mean with “mass of sand”??

 Response 15: The “mass of sand ” is a phrase, used by a published article, to describe the appearance of the eutectic carbides. And we have changed it in to an easy understanding sentence.

  Point 16:Line 157: You are improving the “mechanical performance” instead of the “property performance”.

 Response 16: We have changed  the “property performance” into “mechanical performance”.

 Point 17:Line 168: You said that the hardness increases in region b due to the diffusion of new elements, but why in point “b”, the closest to the substrate, the hardness is lower that in “c”. Explain why this could happen in the text.

 Response 16: Maybe there were some misunderstanding of that sentence  

Original: “As is mentioned above, there is the substrate-elemental dilution phenomenon at the beginning of the WAAM process, which leads to the increase of the hardness from region b to region c in Figure 5(a).”

 we want to  describe that  the substrate-elemental dilution lead to the lower hardness of region b than c, and there are an increase tend from b to c.

 And we have changed it into a clear way.

 Corrected: “As is mentioned above, there is the substrate-elemental dilution phenomenon at the beginning of the WAAM process,which leads to the lower hardness of  region b, and there is an increase trend from region b to c, as shown in Figure 5(a)…”

 Point 18:Line 190: use “heat treated part”.

 Response 18: It has been changed.

  Point 19:Line 190: “the results are presented in the figure” should be “Results are presented in Figure”.

 Response 19: “the results are presented in the figure” has been replaced by “Results are presented in Figure”

 Point 20:Line 205: “remalting” should be “remelting”.

 Response 20: Spelling error, it has been corrected.

 Point 21:Table 4… Units are “MPa” and not “Mpa”. Typical Microsoft word autocorrection error. On that table also you are using EL with 3 decimal places and you errors have only 2 decimal places. Correct it using 2 significative decimal places for EL…i.e. use “1.790+-0.35” instead “1.787+-0.35”.

 Response 21: The “Mpa” has been replaced by “MPa”. The data in that table has been corrected.

 Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round  2

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript has been significantly improved in language and content.

I recommend to publish the manuscript in the Special Issue on Arc Additive Manufacturing.