A Study on the Application of Laser Cleaning on the Weld of the Gas Fuel Supply Pipe for DF Engine
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This manuscript examines the application of laser cleaning on the weld of the 2 gas fuel supply pipe for DF engine. The results show that the use of this technology can eliminate any contamination, including the oxide layer formed on the weld. In this regard, various parameters have been compared. However, applying the following can improve the quality of the manuscript.
- From lines 45 to 47, you describe the laser cleaning process. But it is still not clear to those who are new to the technology. Explain this process clearly.
- The laser cleaning process schematic also needs to be added to Figure 1.
- On line 93, write the equation in which the pulse overlap is obtained. This equation exists in many references, such as the “https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmrt.2021.11.007” reference.
- In line 109, what is meant by “circular laser beam”? These appear to be the inter-dendritic and dendritic-core areas in the welding pool.
- Describe the method in which you measured the roughness in the experiments section.
- Lines 155 to 168 are more like a report and a review of sources than the results of this research. Please provide stronger reasons. Show your results with graphs.
- Why does Equation 1 not have a reference?
- Lines 225 to 226 refer to the previous study without reference.
- Provide the optimal parameter that creates the best cleaning conditions numerically in the conclusion section.
Author Response
We thank you for the careful review of this thesis. The answers to the reviewer’s comments are described in detail in several items below. I hope to give you a satisfactory answer to your comments.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
The manuscript was well written. In equation 1 the details of the notation M are not given. More explanation could be given for 3.3, regarding the treatment of the gas fuel supply pipe prototype. Figure illustrating the chemical treatment can be included. The surface roughness of the chemically treated material is not mentioned.
Author Response
We thank you for the careful review of this thesis. The answers to the reviewer’s comments are described in detail in several items below. I hope to give you a satisfactory answer to your comments.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
Good and interesting work. Major revisions are in order for the authors to address the comments below:
“To produce gas fuel 34 supply pipes for DF engine, a welding process for joining a bellow and a flange should be 35 conducted.”: see recent paper to further support the importance of welding for advanced engineering materials and applications. See for example 10.1016/j.scriptamat.2021.114219, 10.1016/j.matdes.2021.109533 and 10.1016/j.optlastec.2020.106540 and complement the introduction.
“Chemical cleaning technology, an existing post-welding treatment”: not only for post-welding. Prior as well.
“An environmentally friendly laser cleaning process has recently attracted significant”: this is true, expect is the laser conditions are not properly selected. Revise please.
“As environmental pollutants are rarely emitted”: why rarely?
“Several studies have employed laser cleaning to the surface of a material before welding to increase the welding quality of aluminum alloy and carbon steel and reported that 54 the welding quality of these materials increased significantly”: minor description of these works should be provided. Please add.
What is the laser beam distribution? Gaussian?
Fig 1 left side, please also provide a top view of this with scale.
Very good results on fig 3. Did the authors look at the cross section or only at the top view? This should be nice to confirm if there are any microstructure changes induced by the cleaning process.
Also, the surface patterns clearly vary when De. This should be discussed more in detail.
In some of these SEM detail looks like there some sort of cellular structures, but I wonder if there is any actual overlapping during processing. Example of fig 7 e and f for example are examples of this. Please clarity.
Did the authors calculated the projected area for the difference incident angles? The energy density changes with this and should be discussed.
In the XRD plots of the chemical cleaning (blue curve) there is one unindexed peak near the Fe? Why? What is it?
Author Response
We thank you for the careful review of this thesis. The answers to the reviewer’s comments are described in detail in several items below. I hope to give you a satisfactory answer to your comments.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript has been well edited and is recommended for publication.
Reviewer 3 Report
Good job in addressing all comments. Nice work. Acceptance is recommended.
