Effect of Direct Rolling Process on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of the Electron Beam Cold Hearth Melting Ti-6Al-4V Alloy

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Although the proposed manuscript is interesting, there are enough weaknesses that need to be improved. This based on the following:

 

·        The authors should review the title, because it seems to be very technical, it is not understood what they want to study or characterize and why

·        Line 11-23: I consider that the abstract should be reviewed again because it is very general and the objective is not clear.

·        The scope of the study is not well defined, the authors could better express it in the abstract

·        Line 2. the acronym EBCHM must be defined

·        Line 13. the acronym EBSD must be defined

·        Line 120. the acronym UTS and EI must be defined

·        Line 26: The introduction must be enriched because the authors only place paragraphs that have no continuity.

·        Line 68: review the objective again and structure it better

·        In figure 1, subsection a, is not a morphology, it is a visual shot of the molten alloy, the morphologies are observed in microscopy

·        Line 84: What is the technique used to determine the chemical composition?

·        The paragraph line 95-107, the authors must order it is very confusing, it mentions optical microscopy, mechanical properties, scanning electron microscopy, etc, it must include subsections

·        In figure 3, it should say: figure 3. OM microstructure of ......

·        In addition, the magnification of the microstructures must be included, for example 100X, 500X or what was it?

·        The images in Figure 4 are assumed to be from SEM; then it should say: figure 4. SEM-EBSD Recrystallized, substructure, and deformed grains ........

·        The images in Figure 5 are assumed to be from SEM; then it should say: figure 5. SEM-EBSD IPF maps of Ti-6Al-4V alloy deformed........

·        In the graph of figure 7, a horizontal line referring to the theoretical UTS of this titanium alloy should be included.

·        In Figure 9 should say: Figure 9. SEM- SE or SEM- BEI Fracture morphologies …….

·        In the discussion section the paragraphs should be shorter

·        In the results section, the explanation and description of results paragraphs are very extensive.

·        The authors could better enrich the discussion

·        It is recommended that the authors review the conclusions and write them in a specific way.

·        The authors present 28 references.  There is no self-plagiarism.

Author Response

Thank you very much for your positive comments and very detailed suggestions for modification, which are very helpful for the improvement of this article.

We have completed the modification according to your suggestion. Please see the attachmen.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Reviewer 2 Report

It is nice for a change to read a well written research paper.

Author Response

Thank you very much for the positive comments.

Reviewer 3 Report

The article under review is devoted to an urgent topic, namely, the formation of properties after hot rolling of billets from the Ti-6Al-4V alloy, obtained by electron beam cold melting (EBCM). The article has a scientific novelty and will be useful to other researchers. However, I have a few questions and comments for the authors. I hope my comments will help improve this article and publish it in the scientific journal Metals.

1. In section 2, the authors of the paper did not indicate which method they used to determine the actual chemical composition of the alloy. What equipment was used to obtain the results of the chemical composition shown in Table 1?

2. Section 2 does not indicate which rolling equipment was used for hot rolling. What is the roll diameter?

3. What single degrees of deformation were used during rolling to obtain a total degree of deformation of 60 and 90%? Can there be uneven deformation over the thickness of the rolled specimens? It is better to give information about rolling modes in the form of graphic material or a figure.

4. In what part of the sample section was the microstructure analyzed?

5. In Figure 3, it is necessary to indicate the α and β phases.

6. What type of specimen (cylindrical or flat) was tested in tension?

Author Response

Thank you very much for the positive comments and constructive suggestions. We have completed the modification and supplement according to your suggestions. Please see the attachment.

Author Response File: Author Response.pdf

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors have made the suggested changes to the manuscript. Therefore, I agree that your manuscript be published.

Reviewer 3 Report

The authors make changes to the paper in accordance with my comments. I recommend publishing the article in the presented version.