A Method for Stabilizing the Vibration Amplitude of a Flip-Flow Vibrating Screen Using Piecewise Linear Springs

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

As a former plant engineer, in charge of the crushing plant of a mineral processing plant, I confirm that flip-flow vibrating screens are effectively more efficient than steel mesh screens to process slightly humid material and the way we have made that observation is by sampling the feed, overflow and underflow (passing) of a steel mesh screen and of a FFVS screen and by comparing after proper data balancing the efficiency curves of the two screens .  In their paper the authors present plenty of graphs showing the angular velocity as a function of the angular fre quency, but how these curves are related to the screnning efficiency?? These frequency curves  mean nothing for a mineral processor. I think that the authors should have shown  some screen efficiency curves before and after the modification to convince the reader that their approach effectively solved the problem.  I am far from being convinced.

Fig 1 is very good, but the authors should show where their rubber shear springs are installed on the panels

Efficiency curves should be presented to give a practical content to the paper.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper proposes a method to stabilize the vibration amplitude of the FFVS. This method consists of introducing piecewise linear springs between the two frames. The authors verify with methods experimental and theoretical, the latter by using the harmonic balance method (HBM) and the Runge-Kutta numerical method. Although both the introduction and methodology are well explained, I strongly recommend re-structuring the results. I did not find a way to understand which results are experiments and which are theoretical predictions; only after that is possible to reach your main conclusion about how the introduction of piecewise linear springs could effectively stabilize the amplitude of the flip-flow screen during the screening process.

A minor comment about correcting the format of the references. For instance, in Line 55 – Lin et al. should be Lin et al. [17]

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 3 Report

In this paper, the nonlinear flip-flow vibrating screen with piecewise linear springs is investigated. (Only) an analytical model of the issue has been developed and experimentally verified. The work looks interesting and substantively well-prepared, but according to the reviewer modest opinion, it still requires corrections. 

First, please introduce the nomenclature.

Secondly, it would be advisable to conduct a slightly broader review of the literature, including research centers from outside China, because they also deal with similar issues there. Some references about vibration analysis of screener can be useful as follows:

- Dynamic analysis of vibrating screener system;

- The experimental investigation of the screen operation in the parametric resonance conditions;

- Modelling and numerical simulation of parametric resonance phenomenon in vibrating screen.

You can refer to them or use the methods discussed in the mentioned papers to obtain more accurate results.

Third, please use the phrase "circular frequency" (a more professional name) instead of "angular frequency".

I suggest to check carefully and correct the English language of the work.

Author Response

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Author Response File: Author Response.pdf