Stepwise Laser Cladding of TiNbZr and TiTaZr Medium-Entropy Alloys on Pure Ti Substrate
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript considers the surface modification of titanium with zirconium, tantalum and niobium. To carry out surface modification, by stepwise laser cladding was used. The analysis of the elements of the formed layers was carried out. The data on the hardness and wear resistance of this composite material were obtained. The structural characteristics were analyzed using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, X-ray microanalysis, and EBSD method.
The paper is nice, the figures clearly characterize the material obtained, the interpretation of the results is understandable. The manuscript is written clearly and is easy to understand.
The comments are not of a fundamental nature, but taking them into account can improve and supplement the article.
1. It would be useful to discuss and compare the hardness values obtained for this material with the hardness values for titanium coatings with tantalum and niobium by other methods, for example, by electron beam. There are a lot of such works, for example, Golkovsky M.G. et al. Cladding of tantalum and niobium on titanium by electron beam, injected in atmosphere, Advanced Materials Research. - 2011. - Vol. 314–316. – P. 23–27.
2. Figure 3 shows X-ray diffraction patterns of the obtained coatings. When comparing the broadening of the peaks from coatings with Ta and Nb, the authors concluded that the broadening is associated with different stress levels. Such an explanation is possible, but it would be useful to confirm it by determining the level of stresses from X-rays, which is a well-known procedure. In addition, one should analyze the possible contribution of structural defects (dislocation networks or stacking faults) to the broadening. The broadening of the diffraction peaks in this study can also be associated with the inhomogeneity of the chemical composition of the resulting beta-titanium phase. This phase has a bcc lattice and a wide region of homogeneity. It would also be useful to study the structure of the coatings using transmission electron microscopy
3. It would be useful to provide data on the size of the imprint when measuring the hardness of coatings.
Author Response
Dear reviewer 1,
We would like to thank you for giving us a chance to resubmit the paper, and also thank the reviewers for giving us constructive suggestions which would help us in depth to improve the quality of the paper. Here, we present our responses to the comments.
For detailed replies, please refer to the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
Reviewer Comment
Journal : metals
Dear Editor,
This paper deals the “Microstructures and properties of TiNbZr and TiTaZr mediumentropy alloy by stepwise laser cladding on pure Ti substrate” .
The following is a report on the above manuscript, I recommend reconsideration of the manuscript after minor Revision.
1. The title of the manuscript does not encourage the reader to look at it. In my opinion, the title should contain the main idea of the work without additional details
2. Introduction: authors should show in the paper how this work is much more interesting or better than other published papers in literature. The novelty of work has to be in the introduction, making clearly why this work is better than many published papers, and show something interesting. In addition ,the introduction is too large, revise this section,
3. the novelty of the work has not been demonstrated appropriately in the introduction section.
4. the operating modes are poorly presented, you will have to give more details on the conditions of the tests carried out
5. All figure captions should provide with all the necessary information. The author should present the figures with high resolution.
Author Response
Dear reviewer 2,
We would like to thank you for giving us a chance to resubmit the paper, and also thank the reviewers for giving us constructive suggestions which would help us in depth to improve the quality of the paper. Here, we present our responses to the comments.
For detailed replies, please refer to the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Referee’s comments:
1. It would be of interest for future evaluation of these two surface alloys the electrochemical testing of the surface by OCP, voltammograms, and impedance.
2. If possible, Figure 1 (f) may be in a 50 microns scale bar amplification for a direct comparison with the other micrographs (b) and (d).
3. Equations (1) – (7) may be centered in the row and “where…” aligned to the left.
4. The last paragraph of page 5 extends the whole page 7. You could split the paragraph for easier reading.
The same happened in pages 8-9 or in page 10. As in the previous case, it is suggested to split the long paragraphs.
The manuscript has adequate English quality.
Author Response
Dear reviewer 3,
We would like to thank you for giving us a chance to resubmit the paper, and also thank the reviewers for giving us constructive suggestions which would help us in depth to improve the quality of the paper. Here, we present our responses to the comments.
For detailed replies, please refer to the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 4 Report
What is the fundamental novelty of this work? The Introduction should show what is the difference between the already known and expected coatings on Ti. The hardness and wear resistance of the MEA claddings should not be compared with pure Ti (the result is quite obvious) but with other claddings described earlier in the literature. Has no one done this before? If it is the case, then the authors should definitely mention this in the Introduction.
The dimensions in Fig 10 are not comparable with the data in the text.
Is d in (1) and (2) the same?
Tables 3 and 4 are poor and uninformative.
It should be explained how anhydrous ethanol removes metal oxides from the surface.
Dear authors should provide evidence of the possibility of using the ideal gas equation for alloys with a high content of components (e.g., eq. 5).
Dear authors should also provide detailed calculations for (VEC)i.
Have dear authors taken into account that different hardness, crystalline structures, densities, temperature coefficients of expansion etc. of substrate and coating can cause a decrease in adhesion especially under alternating normal loading?
English is OK
Author Response
Dear reviewer 4,
We would like to thank you for giving us a chance to resubmit the paper, and also thank the reviewers for giving us constructive suggestions which would help us in depth to improve the quality of the paper. Here, we present our responses to the comments.
For detailed replies, please refer to the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The article is suitable for publication in present form
Author Response
Dear reviewer 1：
Thanks for your scrupulous review and recommendation.
Hope everything goes well with you.
Reviewer 4 Report
There are mistakes in dimensions on axes: If [volume]x107 = 0.24 then [volume] = 0.24x10-7!
If [rate]x10-4 = 0.32 then [rate] = 0.32x104 and so on.
Such things one has to know.
Moderate English
Author Response
Dear reviewer 4:
We appreciate your scrupulous review and your patience in guiding us to correct the mistake. We have remade the Figure. 10 with the correct dimension axes. Please refer to the attachment.
Hope everything goes well with you.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
