Determination of the Filler Concentration of the Composite Tape

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report (Previous Reviewer 2)

Determination of the filler concentration of the composite tape.

The introductory section needs grammatical review. "Connectivity" among the ideas and parragraphs must be addressed. 

Will authors detail about the mentioned methods for surfacing and spraying parts?

Please modify format of Figure 4 legend, too small to read.

In Figure 6, on each set of analyzed data, it "Seems" that all the std deviation or error bars is the same at every stage of the evaluation, is that the case?

The same for Figure 7, 8, and 9...

What is the value added of your work? 

Author Response

The authors are thankful for the review.

We really appreciate your opinion.

Responses to comments are attached in the file.

Sincerely.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report (New Reviewer)

Authors describe, for the first time as claimed, the obtention of a theoretical dependence for determining the filler concentration in composite tapes. As a result, they can obtain a composite tape with variable mechanical and tribological properties. 

By bench studites, they find the possibility to establish the amount of wear of the central bowl of the rail truck bolster with welded composite tape, as 0.15-0.18 mm per 10,000 km of a freight car's mileage.

They correctly introduce the state of art in the field, showing the importance of those type of  calculations, by presenting a huge amount of references, many of them from the last 5 years. Materials and methods are also well shown and explained, in the way that they can be reproduced. Equations presented for the calculations are correctly expressed and shown, in an understable way.

Regarding results and their discussion, they show hardness test results correctly, together with the theoretical distribution of filler in the composite tape, as well as the theoretical dependence of the wear of the tape. However, Figure 4 should be improved, as the quality is not enough for a proper visualization.

Adhesion strength tests and results are properly presented and shown. However, I miss some errors in the calculations. As they give the mean value, they should present also deviation ones (Table 2). Figures 6-9, even if correct, should be improved for a better visualization.

Obtained conclusions are in agreement with presented and obtained data.

Author Response

The authors are thankful for the review.

We really appreciate your opinion.

Responses to comments are attached in the file.

Sincerely.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report (New Reviewer)

In the paper, the authors studied wear of the filler concentration of the composite tape. The authors' work is valuable. The reviewer thinks that it can be accepted for publication after the following several points are improved or clarified.

1. In Section 3.5, more details of the tester and test parameters are needed. 

2. In Section 3.5, SEM observation of the wear scars is needed. 

3. The language of the paper needs to be improved.

Author Response

The authors are thankful for the review.

We really appreciate your opinion.

Responses to comments are attached in the file.

Sincerely.

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

In this paper, the filler of the composite material is used to reduce the wear of the central bowl of the rail truck bolster. It is interest and useful for the safe operation of freight car. The paper can be published after considering the following comments.

1. The format of this paper such as reference need  be improved.
2. As paper shown, the FeCrNiCr3C2 have a maximum hardness due to Cr3C2, why not observe be SEM or TEM?
3. As paper shown, the decrease of hardness on FeCrNiTiC due to porosity why not observe be SEM or Microscopy?

Reviewer 2 Report

Uneven wear on truck bolster (rail).

Good work on the literature review. However, there is misconnection among several parragraphs in this section. I recommend the authors to review section in detail.

During the design and manufacture of the components, is there any search for novel or disruptive design?

How many replicas were run during the experimental evaluation?

Can you show the standard deviation?

How are these components inspected at initial state? what is the acceptance criteria? 

What are the parameters for repairing these components? 

Conclusion need more work to be better understanding by readers.

Reviewer 3 Report

This article aims to determine the concentration of the filler of the composite material 15 to reduce the wear of the central bowl of the rail truck bolster. Different filler concentration in the composite tape can ensure the uniform wear of the CBRTB. The total wear values of the center plate assembly at full load of the freight car were detected. This is a very arduous task. However, the data in this paper lacks in-depth analysis and does not reflect its scientific value.

1. The test method is not detailed enough.
2. This is a dry friction system. The author only explains the friction and wear with hardness, and does not discuss the influence of friction heat.
3. Without surface analysis, the wear mechanism cannot be known.
4. Provide the structure, size, shape and other information of the friction pair.
5. Preparation method and welding method of composite materials.
6. Data repetition times and error analysis.
7. Language should be further improved.

I suggest rejecting the manuscript.

Reviewer 4 Report

There is no novelty upto the requirement, scientific approach is not  appreciatable.