Review Reports

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

Interesting paper. Pleasant reading. Useful endeavour. Very curious to see a commercial viable version.

Author Response

We thank the reviewer for his positive feedback.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

The paper by Alfeld et al. is well written and deals with a novel mechanical method that would allow to scan not planar artworks, uneven surfaces and in general three-dimensional objects as sculptures. The application is riveting and I believe it will open new perspective on MA-XRF applications.

On this regard, I have just a couple of comments to make. The use of such a cable robot is proposed to the application of MA-XRF, as stated from the beginning in the title of the manuscript. Conversely, no real XRF is yet carried out with this method. But, at the same time, I do not see why this method should be limited to MA-XRF as it can be applied on any scanning analytical method that makes the use of a source and a (or more) detector(s) placed on the same side of a sample. So, I have the feeling that the authors may widen the application of the scanning method they are proposing. In the present form, the manuscript lacks of a XRF application to define the method.

Author Response

We thank the reviewer for his positive feedback and have mentioned the application of the method for similar methods in abstract and text of the paper.

Reviewer 3 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I would like to congratulate the authors on an excellent paper. In addition to this work presenting a great innovation, the authors were sincere in presenting the difficulties encountered with the methodology.

This work presents great clarity and excellent use of the English language.

I would like to suggest that the letter corresponding to the description of the figure be added to figure 1 in each of the images.

Author Response

We thank the reviewer for his positive feedback and have added the labels to Figure 1.