Functional Assessment and Implementation Studies on the 3D Printing Process in Structural Monitoring Applications
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper “applsci-1753106-peer-review-v1-Polymer” related to structural monitoring in AM was reviewed. Please follow the comments carefully and resubmit your paper for the next consideration and reviewing process.
1. Remove figure 1 from the abstract.
2. Figure 2 (B) in the middle as shinny point. Please fix that and replace it with a good figure.
3. Add some quantitative results to the abstract.
4. What is the main issue that will be solved by this investigation? Please clarify it in the text.
5. Provide a thorough discussion of reported results. The presented discussion cannot clarify the happening phenomena. Provide more fundamental information.
6. How authors design the UML diagram in Figure 7? More explanation is required.
7. AM has many usages in different industries. To highlight your work, add a short note in the introduction by using the following papers and mention the privilege of lasers in manufacturing. “Additive manufacturing a powerful tool for the aerospace industry”.
8. If possible, compare your results with the same literature.
9. The introduction needs to be updated with the following new references for the usage of lasers in different applications.
· Surface modification of prototypes in fused deposition modelling using lapping process
· Optimization of FDM 3D printing parameters for high strength PEEK using the Taguchi method and experimental validation
· Characterization of power demand and energy consumption for fused filament fabrication using CFR-PEEK
· Transient thermal finite-element analysis of fused filament fabrication process
· Dimensional accuracy and surface finish of 3D printed polyurethane (PU) dog-bone samples optimally manufactured by fused deposition modelling (FDM)
10. More statistical results should be presented in the conclusion.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you very much for your suggestions. We have adhered to them eagerly, and we consider them fruitful. They have certainly allowed us to enrich our material greatly. Below, please find the answers to your questions and concerns.
Q) Remove figure 1 from the abstract.
A) Thank you very much for your suggestion. As in the abstract, we didn't place any figure, and we suspect you thought about the Introduction. Nevertheless, we would rather remain at our previous idea. Firstly, all pictures are taken by us personally, so we don't expect any misunderstanding with copyrights. Secondly, this particular figure helps our readers to understand our intentions better.
Q) Figure 2 (B) in the middle as shinny point. Please fix that and replace it with a good figure.
A) We checked our manuscript and believe your comment refers to Figure 1b. Of course – your suggestion is valuable, and we adhered to it eagerly. Our newest version contains the corrected picture.
Q) Add some quantitative results to the abstract.
A) Thank you for your entirely suitable remark! We have provided the relevant information to our abstract.
Q) What is the main issue that will be solved by this investigation? Please clarify it in the text.
A) Thank you for your entirely suitable remark! We have provided the relevant information to our body text (Lines 110-115: "In this article, the authors described their own author's development of an automated technological line supporting the construction of dedicated protective enclosures housings of for robotic total station stations used in geodetic deformation monitoring. The designed solution allows for achieving the highest possible accuracies with maximal protection of instruments exposed to harsh field conditions. At the same time, the dedicated housing is light and pouring water resistible".).
Q) Provide a thorough discussion of reported results. The presented discussion cannot clarify the happening phenomena. Provide more fundamental information.
A) Thank you for your suggestion! We have added an important explaining passage to our text (Lines 274-292): "The results obtained in the laboratory confirmed the consistency of the instrument readings. The manufactured product demonstrated no negative impact on the tested total station. During similar applications on various engineering objects, practitioners encounter many problems that sometimes significantly degrade the measurements. Here, one can mention the impact of atmospheric conditions on the total station (ice caps or dust stains on glasses of protective containers, instrument overheating by a constant solar exposure) and other error sources typical for quantity surveying. A particular problem may be the interference with the total station laser beam track caused by the container glasses. Here we encounter the phenomenon of the refraction typical for light beams passing through different environments (e.g., air-glass-air) and its dispersion caused by glare. This problem mainly concerns deformation monitoring systems because the electronic total stations used for such tasks are equipped with automatic target recognition modules as standard. In such cases, the changing lighting conditions characteristic of different media interfere with the operation of the scan engines. This often leads to incorrect identification of prisms or complete dysfunction of such modules. When designing our solution, we wanted to avoid such situations while being aware of the adverse impact of other factors on the instrument. The effect of conceptual modelling and the obtained test results confirm the fulfilment of the requirements set for contractors of surveying works, especially on construction sites".
Q) How authors design the UML diagram in Figure 7? More explanation is required.
A) Thank you for your suggestion! We have added a vital explaining passage to our text (Lines 215-221): "To develop the UML diagrams, we used Sparx System's Enterprise Architect software. The environment allows for project documentation for IT solutions in various methodologies and standards. As the reference for preparing the UML activity diagram (Figure 7), we practically implemented the assumptions presented in Section 2. After performing a series of laboratory tests with a total station and examining its station stability, we decided to describe the entire technological process, divided into individual stages, in a standardized form".
Q) AM has many usages in different industries. To highlight your work, add a short note in the Introduction by using the following papers and mention the privilege of lasers in manufacturing. "Additive manufacturing a powerful tool for the aerospace industry".
A) Thank you for your suggestion. We added an explaining sentence to our text (Lines 103-105: "What is more, the presented issues are widely used by different industries – from civil engineering to aerospace"). As we are not aeronautics specialists, we would rather focus on land surveying tasks in our article.
Q) If possible, compare your results with the same literature.
A) Thank you for your proposition; however, we intended to present our findings in the research area of land surveying (deformation monitoring). We appreciate the interdisciplinary approach and plan to apply some multi-branch comparisons in our future works.
Q) The Introduction needs to be updated with the following new references for the usage of lasers in different applications: Surface modification of prototypes in fused deposition modelling using lapping process, Optimization of FDM 3D printing parameters for high strength PEEK using the Taguchi method and experimental validation, Characterization of power demand and energy consumption for fused filament fabrication using CFR-PEEK, Transient thermal finite-element analysis of fused filament fabrication process, Dimensional accuracy and surface finish of 3D printed polyurethane (PU) dog-bone samples optimally manufactured by fused deposition modelling (FDM).
A) We appreciate your suggestions; however, we are not specialists in your mentioned research areas. Our investigations are targeted mainly at civil engineers and land surveyors dealing with deformation/displacement monitoring problems. Although laser-based technologies somewhat refer to geodetic instruments, we are only their users – e.g., we measure with total stations, but our studies are limited to the surveying results. Regarding that, we would not like to go deeply into technologies we are not familiar with. We appreciate your understanding.
Q) More statistical results should be presented in the conclusion.
A) Thank you for your suggestion. We added the relevant passage in the Conclusion section (Lines 339-348: "The measurement results obtained during the laboratory test confirm the correctness of the total station readings taken to the control prisms. The obtained precision remains at the millimeter level, which fully meets the expectations of surveyors and civil engineers regarding automated deformation monitoring systems. The obtained deviation values σX, σY, σZ represent longitudinal, traverse, and height displacements in the geodetic monitoring system. Such values expressed on the submillimeter level indicate the impact of random errors related to common ambient conditions. They are entirely acceptable in geodetic deformation monitoring and illustrate the correctness of the measurements made".
Once again, we wanted to thank you for your fruitful comments. We hope that our improved article version fulfils your expectations.
Kind regards,
The authors
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
In the manuscript titled Functional assessment and implementation studies on the 3D printing process in structural monitoring applications investigated development of an automated technological line supporting the construction of dedicated protective enclosures of robotic total station stations for use in geodetic deformation monitoring. They covered a lot of parameters that influences the reliability of surveying accuracy. The authors have developed a technological line of 3D printing allowing building a dedicated protective solution for precise, robotic electronic total stations operating in a displacement monitoring system on a construction site or mining areas. The presentation is clear and concise. Figures are with appropriate resolution. Only for Fig. 7., I suggest higher font and higher resolution. English is at high level. I recommend publication of manuscript.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you very much for your kind appreciation of our work! We are grateful to you for having invested your time and sharing your professional comments with us. We have adhered to your suggestion regarding Figure 7 eagerly, and we provided the relevant improvement.
Your comments have certainly allowed us to enrich our material greatly. Once again, we want to thank you for your review, and we believe that our newest article version fulfils your expectations.
Kind regards,
The authors
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The paper “Functional assessment and implementation studies on the 3D printing process in structural monitoring applications” aims to utilize additive manufacturing to fabricate a protective housing.
The current work has a practical impact and shows how additive manufacturing can be utilized in similar problems. The study is well presented and shows interesting results, so it would be advisable to publish it after the following changes:
1. Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a well-known way to design and implementation of complex software systems. In my opinion, it would be interesting to explain furtherly the contribution of UML during the product design process. Probably, to present and discuss intermediate designs.
2. The dimensions of the fabricated part are not referred
3. Please specify the 3d printer type, the used material, and the other printing settings.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you very much for your suggestions. We have adhered to them eagerly, and we consider them fruitful. They have certainly allowed us to enrich our material greatly. Below, please find the answers to your questions and concerns.
Q) Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a well-known way to design and implementation of complex software systems. In my opinion, it would be interesting to explain furtherly the contribution of UML during the product design process. Probably, to present and discuss intermediate designs.
A) Thank you very much for your suggestion. We added the relevant explanation as a new passage in the “Discussion” section (“The developed UML diagrams successfully allowed for verifying the methodological assumptions. Such an approach made it possible to assess the correctness of the technological process. The developed conceptual models expressed in UML language stand as an inevitable aspect of project documentation in terms of software engineering and implementing web-based services. What is more, potential modifications in technological procedures can be easily implemented using UML. The relevant diagrams exemplifying contextual modelling can freely be altered and extended, providing flexibility in change management”.).
Q) The dimensions of the fabricated part are not referred.
A) Of course, we wanted to apologize for that shortcoming. The relevant information is already added to the text – Lines 143-146 (“Considering standard instrument dimensions (for example - length 248mm, width 228mm and height 351mm), we aimed at producing an oval housing fitting a universal total station (design values – perimeter 250mm and height 360mm”.).
Q) Please specify the 3d printer type, the used material, and the other printing settings.
A) Thank you for your entirely suitable remark! We have provided the relevant information to our manuscript together with the referring literature (positions [28] and [29]).
Once again, we wanted to thank you for your fruitful comments. We hope that our improved article version fulfils your expectations.
Kind regards,
The authors
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The paper is ready to publish.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you very much for your approval. We are thankful for all your helpful comments.
Kind regards,
Authors
