Material Flow and Mechanical Properties of a Non-Keyhole Friction Stir Welded Aluminum Alloy with Improved Sleeve Bottom Geometry
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Reviewer comments
The paper is about material flow and mechanical properties of non-keyhole friction stir welded aluminum alloys under improved sleeve bottom geometry. The results provided by this investigation are relevant. The paper is already in good shape, and minor revisions arenecessary.
- - Please, add the main dimensions in Figure 1 and Figure 2.
- - The chemical composition and mechanical properties of BM shown in Table 1 was provided by the supplier? Please, specify the method used to determined chemical composition. The tensile strength, elongation and hardness values are average? In case of average values, the standard deviation must be added.
- - Lines 134 and 142: replaced “formula” by equation
- - All commercial software used must carry a superscript symbol ®. Please, revise the manuscript.
- - Lines 254, 258 and 263: Average grain size is 9.46 μm…Please, add the standard deviation.
- - The quality of Fig. 8 is poor.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors,
The reviewed submission titled: “Material flow and mechanical properties of non-keyhole friction stir welded aluminum alloys under improved sleeve bottom geometry” describes an experimental and numerical modeling study aimed at evaluation of the morphology and properties of Al steel joints made by FSW process. This issue is one of the latest research trends in weldability of Al alloys. The work contains elements of novelty, fits the thematic profile of the journal and is of good scientific level. I also checked the manuscript in terms of form and editing. Below I present the comments that should be introduced into the manuscript before deciding whether to accept the manuscript for publication.
Title: change: „alloys” to „alloy”. Only one grade of Al is described in the paper.
Abstract: please organize the content and structure according to the standard layout: introduction, purpose, materials and methods, research, results and the most important conclusions (with quantitative results).
Keywords section: I propose to add the name of base material.
The Introduction section is carefully prepared towards the direct subject of the rest of the manuscript, however not too long. Please additionally consider using the information (especially weldability of Al alloys) provided in the recent papers: https://doi.org/10.3390/ma14247883, https://doi.org/10.2478/adms-2022-0001.
Chapter 2:
What is the source of the data shown in Table 1? The content of “Si = 1” does not look good: please add the values after the dot: zero.
Please provide the chemical composition of Weck's reagent.
All devices (e.g. FSW machine, microscope) used in the research should be described in accordance with the journal's guidelines (name, address).
Please verify the parameter values given on lines 102-105. This data is inconsistent with the results. Why were such parameter values chosen? Did it result from your own previous experiences or from an analysis of the literature?
There is no need to enter the value of UTS with such high precision: it is enough to be accurate to one, without the decimal point. What does the red square on figure 9 mean? Is this the area of error? Standard deviation?
In the introductory sentence to conclusions, please add the name of the material tested.
Complete the bibliographic description of references [16]: Ding, R. J., Oelgoetz, P. A. (1999). U.S. Patent No. 5,893,507. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Other remarks:
Figure 5: The font is too small.
Figure 7: Please enlarge the photos.
Please replace "Fig." on "Figure" throughout the text (in line with MDPI guidelines). Please remove double spaces.
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript entitled “metals-1874953” dealing with Material flow and mechanical properties of non-keyhole fric-2 tion stir welded aluminum has been reviewed. The paper has been nicely written but needs significant improvement. Please follow my comments.
- Consider revising the keywords. They are not reflecting the content.
- Add more quantitative results to the abstract.
- What is the novelty of this work? This should be highlighted in the abstract.
- Explanation of Figure 5 “Material flow velocity vectors of 150 mm/min; material flow contours at (b) 110 mm/min..” is not through. Please add more discussion about this figure and make it more comprehensive for the readers.
- What is future work for this research? Is there any industrial application for this work?
- Keyhole mode and issue is a significant topic in my thermal processing of materials such as additive manufacturing. Please read the following four articles about keyholes in different processes such as additive manufacturing and add them to the introduction
· Distribution and evolution of thermal stress in laser powder bed fusion: conduction mode versus keyhole mode
· The effect of absorption ratio on meltpool features in laser-based powder bed fusion of IN718
· Optimization of LB-PBF process parameters to achieve best relative density and surface roughness for Ti6Al4V samples: using NSGA-II algorithm
· Effects of the process parameters on the formability and properties of Ni54 (at.%) Ti alloys prepared by laser powder bed fusion
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors,
thank you very much for the answers and for completing the manuscript according to my suggestions. During authors proofreading please note that in response you wrote that reference [2] is https://www.sciendo.com/article/10.2478/adms-2022-0001, and in the manuscript it is: https: //www.sciendo. com / article / 10.2478 / adms-2022-0002. Maybe this is due to a typo? I am not the author of these works.
Reviewer 3 Report
The paper is ready to publish.
