Effect of Silicon on Thermal Stability of 4Cr3Mo2V Hot-Work Die Steel
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript for understanding the effect of silicon on thermal stability of 4Cr3Mo2V Hot-Work 2 Die Steel provides what it promises but there are some points that should be improved.
Abstract is composed of a short summary of the work done without pointing the novelty of this work. It is advised replacing the abstract by eliminating 'the results show that..' and the following results by scientific background, novelty and the reason of performing this study.
The question, 'how will these well-designed experiments provide a better understanding on the thermal stability?', arises while reading the Introduction section. This can be clarified in
There are wording errors in whole text like 'wunstable'. They must be fixed with grammatical errors.
Main sections can be started by a short introductory paragraph in spite of listing titles subsequently.
Sections for results and conclusions should provide information, discussion and comments about the link between experimental results and thermal stability.
Author Response
Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled "Effect of Silicon on Thermal stability of 4Cr3Mo2V Hot-Work Die Steel"(ID metals-2094967). Those comments are very valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our research. We have studied all comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revised portions were marked in red in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responses to the reviewers’ comments are as following:
Reviewer #1:
The manuscript for understanding the effect of silicon on thermal stability of 4Cr3Mo2V Hot-Work 2 Die Steel provides what it promises but there are some points that should be improved.
First of all, thank you very much for spending your valuable time reviewing the manuscript. The following is my reply
- Abstract is composed of a short summary of the work done without pointing the novelty of this work. It is advised replacing the abstract by eliminating 'the results show that..' and the following results by scientific background, novelty and the reason of performing this study.
Response: Thank you for your comments, which have been modified and filled in the manuscript.
(ii) The question, 'how will these well-designed experiments provide a better understanding on the thermal stability?', arises while reading the Introduction section. This can be clarified in
Response: The thermal stability of die steel is also called anti tempering softening property. It refers to the anti softening ability of materials in the long tempering process. The experimental method designed in this paper "600 and 650 ℃ long time tempering to observe the hardness changes of the two materials" can effectively and intuitively show the thermal stability of the materials.
(iii) There are wording errors in whole text like 'wunstable'. They must be fixed with grammatical errors.
Response: Sorry for this error. I have corrected it in the manuscript and checked the grammar of the full text.
(â…£) Main sections can be started by a short introductory paragraph in spite of listing titles subsequently.Sections for results and conclusions should provide information, discussion and comments about the link between experimental results and thermal stability.
Response: Thank you for your comments, which have been revised and supplemented in the manuscript.
We appreciate for Editors/Reviwers’ warm work earnestly, and hope that the correction will meet with approval.Once again, thank you very much for your comments and suggestions.
Reviewer 2 Report
Dear Authors,
Thank you for your manuscript.
Overall, I think, the manuscript is well written and explains most everything in details. Aside from the results presented in this article, I only have one concern about the high temperature corrosion and possible dissolution of some of these carbides, especially Cr23C6, that might lead to high temperature cracking.
There are few minor spelling checks required. Some of them are highlighted in the attached Pdf.
Thank you.
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Author Response
Dear Editors and Reviewers:
Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled "Effect of Silicon on Thermal stability of 4Cr3Mo2V Hot-Work Die Steel"(ID metals-2094967). Those comments are very valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our research. We have studied all comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revised portions were marked in red in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responses to the reviewers’ comments are as following:
Reviewer #2:
Overall, I think, the manuscript is well written and explains most everything in details. Aside from the results presented in this article, I only have one concern about the high temperature corrosion and possible dissolution of some of these carbides, especially Cr23C6, that might lead to high temperature cracking.
There are few minor spelling checks required. Some of them are highlighted in the attached Pdf.
First of all, thank you very much for spending your valuable time reviewing the manuscript. The following is my reply
Response:Thank you for your questions and comments. First of all, I would like to answer your concerns. M6C and Cr23C6 carbides are easy to coarsen, and their existence is indeed easy to lead to high temperature cracking of materials. However, these carbides are inevitable in hot work die steel. The purpose of this test is to study whether increasing Si content can effectively inhibit the content of such carbides, so as to improve the high temperature performance of materials. Later, we will carry out other performance tests on the materials (including thermal fatigue and hot melt loss).
In addition, I'm sorry that the grammar problem has brought you a bad reading experience. I have corrected the errors you raised and checked the grammar of the full text.
Thank you again for your guidance.
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript "Effect of Silicon on Thermal stability of 4Cr3Mo2V Hot-Work Die Steel" has been reviewed. It deals with the experimental analysis on 4Cr3Mo2V hot-work die steel and its thermal stability by means of SEM and TEM characterization. Thermodynamic calculations have been performed too with Thermo-Calc software.
The topic is interesting, however further details should be argumented.
The manuscript is globally well arranged and almost clear. English acceptable.
Experimental characterization is deep enough and also adopted techniques.
In my opinion it can be reconsidered for publication after the following major revisions:
1) References are quite ancient and should be updated with recent works;
2) The reason why such long times (64 h, unusual) and high temperatures (650 °C) have been studied should be at least motivated.
3) The motivation of this study and the potential applications of these steels should be explicited in the introduction and conclusions.
After these changes the manuscript can be reconsidered for publication.
Author Response
Dear Editors and Reviewers:
Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled "Effect of Silicon on Thermal stability of 4Cr3Mo2V Hot-Work Die Steel"(ID metals-2094967). Those comments are very valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our research. We have studied all comments carefully and have made correction which we hope meet with approval. Revised portions were marked in red in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responses to the reviewers’ comments are as following:
Reviewer #3:
The manuscript "Effect of Silicon on Thermal stability of 4Cr3Mo2V Hot-Work Die Steel" has been reviewed. It deals with the experimental analysis on 4Cr3Mo2V hot-work die steel and its thermal stability by means of SEM and TEM characterization. Thermodynamic calculations have been performed too with Thermo-Calc software.
The topic is interesting, however further details should be argumented.
The manuscript is globally well arranged and almost clear. English acceptable.
Experimental characterization is deep enough and also adopted techniques.
In my opinion it can be reconsidered for publication after the following major revisions:
First of all, thank you very much for spending your valuable time reviewing the manuscript. The following is my reply.
(i) References are quite ancient and should be updated with recent works;
Response: Thank you for your comments. References have been updated in the manuscript.
（ii）The reason why such long times (64 h, unusual) and high temperatures (650 °C) have been studied should be at least motivated.
Response:The thermal stability study mainly focuses on the softening of materials after a long service at a certain temperature. At present, the common casting materials for die casting dies are mostly Al or Mg alloys. The pouring temperature of Al alloy is 610-700 ℃, and the pouring temperature of Mg alloy is 640-700 ℃. There will be some heat loss during the pouring process, but the instantaneous temperature of the mold cavity can still reach the temperature of the pouring solution. Therefore, this paper mainly selects two temperatures, 600 ℃ and 650 ℃, for long-term tempering experiments. The holding time is selected as 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 24, 32, 48, and 64 h, respectively. Finally, 650 ℃ × 64 h is selected for the main analysis, because the carbide size is large and the distribution is obvious under this condition, which is conducive to observation, statistical analysis and better conclusion.
(iii)The motivation of this study and the potential applications of these steels should be explicited in the introduction and conclusions.
Response:Thank you for your comments. The potential applications of these steels and research motivation have been added in the introduction.
We appreciate for Editors/Reviwers’ warm work earnestly, and hope that the correction will meet with approval.Once again, thank you very much for your comments and suggestions.
Round 2
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript has been significantly improved and can be accepted in the present form.
