Microstructural Evolution of AA5154 Layers Intermixed with Mo Powder during Electron Beam Wire-Feed Additive Manufacturing (EBAM)

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The paper is a useful study of additive deposition of aa5154 using ebam, with Mo powder added in and remelted/mixed into the al.  The authors provide motivation for this, as the Mo addition improves wear properties of the alloy.  Here are some comments:

1. On line 70, the fabrication of carbide/aluminum bronze composite example needs a reference.
2. Figure 1 needs to have the letters a - d referenced in the caption.
3. On line 122 it isn't clear what "120 5600 m" refers to.
4. Table 7 has russian titles - need to make them english.
5. The total amount of IMCs increase with Mo content, but properties like wear are not increasing with Mo content.  Some additional explanation for this is needed.  Can non uniform distribution of IMCs be quantified?
6. Are there perspectives for optimizing wear in future efforts?

 

 

Author Response

The paper is a useful study of additive deposition of aa5154 using ebam, with Mo powder added in and remelted/mixed into the al.  The authors provide motivation for this, as the Mo addition improves wear properties of the alloy.  Here are some comments:

1. On line 70, the fabrication of carbide/aluminum bronze composite example needs a reference.

A: Thank you. The missing reference has been added.

2. Figure 1 needs to have the letters a - d referenced in the caption.

A: Caption to Figure 1 has been modified to provide better description of the EBAM process stages.

3. On line 122 it isn't clear what "120 5600 m" refers to.

A: Thank you. This sentence has been revised to read as follows. Rotation rate, normal load and sliding path length were 94 RPM, 15 N and 5600 m, respectively

4. Table 7 has russian titles - need to make them english.

A: Thank you. Table 7 was revised.

5. The total amount of IMCs increase with Mo content, but properties like wear are not increasing with Mo content.  Some additional explanation for this is needed.  Can non uniform distribution of IMCs be quantified?

A: It was not suggested from the very beginning of this work that wear would increase with Mo content in the AA5154/. On the contrary, the aim was to reduce wear of such a composite structure by reinforcing the AA5254 with hard IMCs. However, it occurred that despite the AA5154/Mo pins’ wear reduced as compared to that of the as-deposited AA5154 ones there was some increase in wear for samples in the row 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 g/layer. We relate this finding to inhomogeneous distribution of coarse IMCs that could have been pulled out and then plough the worn surface.

6. Are there perspectives for optimizing wear in future efforts?

A: In fact more homogeneous distribution of more fine IMCs would serve for better wear resistance since there would be better retention of them in the aluminum matrix so that they could better form mechanically mixed layers containing molybdenum oxides. 

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper is written carelessly. It has not  conclusion section, very weak abstract , and bad presentation. It should be carefully revised and submitted again to the same journal.  

Author Response

The paper is written carelessly. It has not  conclusion section, very weak abstract , and bad presentation. It should be carefully revised and submitted again to the same journal.  

A: We did our best to revise the manuscript and improve both readability an presentation. The Metals journal standards afford no separate Conclusion section.

Reviewer 3 Report

The manuscript entitled “Microstructural evolution of AA5154 layers intermixed with Mo powder during electron beam wire-feed additive manufacturing (EBAM)” dealing with metal additive manufacturing has been reviewed with great attention. Generally, the paper provides valuable information however, significant improvement needs to be done before reconsidering the paper.  

 

1. Expand the abstract and add some more materials regarding the results.
2. Additive manufacturing has many advantages over the conventional manufacturing method which can be highlighted in your paper. Please read the following article and add to the introduction to show the experimental application of additive manufacturing and the advantage of this process over conventional manufacturing like machining. “Additive manufacturing a powerful tool for the aerospace industry”
3. Clarify how did you select your process parameters in Table 1.
4. Please improve the quality of Figure 3 or justify why the higher quality figure is not possible to provide.
5. Expand the discussions on Figure 7 and TEMs.
6. The introduction needs to be compared with wire arc AM in the following references. Please read and add them to the text.

 

 

• Tang, S., G. Wang, H. Song, R. Li, and H. Zhang, A novel method of bead modeling and control for wire and arc additive manufacturing. , 2021.
• Zhou, X., Q. Tian, Y. Du, Y. Zhang, X. Bai, Y. Zhang, H. Zhang, C. Zhang, and Y. Yuan, Investigation of the effect of torch tilt and external magnetic field on arc during overlapping deposition of wire arc additive manufacturing. , 2021.
• . Kulkarni, J.D., S.B. Goka, P.K. Parchuri, H. Yamamoto, K. Ito, and S. Simhambhatla, Microstructure evolution along build direction for thin-wall components fabricated with wire-direct energy deposition. , 2021.
• Fang, X., C. Ren, L. Zhang, C. Wang, K. Huang, and B. Lu, A model of bead size based on the dynamic response of CMT-based wire and arc additive manufacturing process parameters. , 2021.
• X Chen, Y Fu, F Kong, R Li, Y Xiao, J Hu, An in-process multi-feature data fusion nondestructive testing approach for wire arc additive manufacturing

 

7. The discussions on X-ray diffractograms (figure 18) is not sufficient enough. Please expand and improve.

 

 

 

 

Author Response

The manuscript entitled “Microstructural evolution of AA5154 layers intermixed with Mo powder during electron beam wire-feed additive manufacturing (EBAM)” dealing with metal additive manufacturing has been reviewed with great attention. Generally, the paper provides valuable information however, significant improvement needs to be done before reconsidering the paper.  

1. Expand the abstract and add some more materials regarding the results.

A: Thank you. The abstract was revised

2. Additive manufacturing has many advantages over the conventional manufacturing method which can be highlighted in your paper. Please read the following article and add to the introduction to show the experimental application of additive manufacturing and the advantage of this process over conventional manufacturing like machining. “Additive manufacturing a powerful tool for the aerospace industry”

A: Thank you. This reference was added to the Intrduction as well as some others to expand the discussion.  

3. Clarify how did you select your process parameters in Table 1.

A: The EBAM process parameters for building a AA5154 wall were experimentally found when experimenting with many aluminum alloys at the preliminary stages. These ones allowed growing the best quality walls without any defects.  

4. Please improve the quality of Figure 3 or justify why the higher quality figure is not possible to provide.

A: Figure 3 was replaced for more adequate one

5. Expand the discussions on Figure 7 and TEMs.

A: Done

6. The introduction needs to be compared with wire arc AM in the following references. Please read and add them to the text.

 Tang, S., G. Wang, H. Song, R. Li, and H. Zhang, A novel method of bead modeling and control for wire and arc additive manufacturing. , 2021.

• Zhou, X., Q. Tian, Y. Du, Y. Zhang, X. Bai, Y. Zhang, H. Zhang, C. Zhang, and Y. Yuan, Investigation of the effect of torch tilt and external magnetic field on arc during overlapping deposition of wire arc additive manufacturing. , 2021.
• Kulkarni, J.D., S.B. Goka, P.K. Parchuri, H. Yamamoto, K. Ito, and S. Simhambhatla, Microstructure evolution along build direction for thin-wall components fabricated with wire-direct energy deposition. , 2021.
• Fang, X., C. Ren, L. Zhang, C. Wang, K. Huang, and B. Lu, A model of bead size based on the dynamic response of CMT-based wire and arc additive manufacturing process parameters. , 2021.
• X Chen, Y Fu, F Kong, R Li, Y Xiao, J Hu, An in-process multi-feature data fusion nondestructive testing approach for wire arc additive manufacturing

 A: Thank you. Two reference was added to the Intrduction: 

• Tang, S., G. Wang, H. Song, R. Li, and H. Zhang, A novel method of bead modeling and control for wire and arc additive manufacturing. , 2021.
• Kulkarni, J.D., S.B. Goka, P.K. Parchuri, H. Yamamoto, K. Ito, and S. Simhambhatla, Microstructure evolution along build direction for thin-wall components fabricated with wire-direct energy deposition. , 2021.

The references suggested by the reviewer deal with WAAM fabrication of components, control and detection of defects, effects of process geometry and imposed magnetic field, microstructural evolution during assemblage of  ES70S-6 alloy, etc.

In our manuscript we  neither compared between the AM methods nor studied the process parameter effects. We focused on studying the AM potential for in-situ obtaining composite structures in aluminum matrix. In particular, we just intermixed Mo powder with aluminum alloy and examined the structures obtained, their mechanical and functional characteristics as depended on the Mo concentration. We added some more relevant  references and thus expanded the Introduction section to include more information of aluminum matrix composite structures prepared with AM.

7. The discussions on X-ray diffractograms (figure 18) is not sufficient enough. Please expand and improve.

A: These diffractograms just show the presence of mixed oxides which formed from elements of both Al/Mo sample and steel counterbody. These oxides compose a mechanically mixed layer that protects the underlying material against severe wear.

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper is well revised.

Reviewer 3 Report

The submitted version of the manuscript is the same as the original version. I can not see any changes. Please upload the final version after revisions. 

Round 3

Reviewer 3 Report

The paper is ready to go.