Extrusion-Based 3D Printing Applications of PLA Composites: A Review
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript is well reviewed on extrusion based 3D printing applications of PLA composites. It described as stated in the abstract and well concluded. The writing style is easy to follow but on page 14 line 582 and some parts from this point was confused. For example, page 17 from line 735. There were various citing papers on biomedical, tissue engineering and antibacterial applications. It will be better to insert additional references that more cover for other applications in the review. The paper informed the improvement of fillers and fibers distribution with PLA. Nevertheless, the present review manuscript may not be directly to the scope of this Journal. If it is possible, please add a review part on the modification of PLA composites for the extrusion based 3D printing.
Author Response
Comments and Suggestions for Authors: The manuscript is well reviewed on extrusion based 3D printing applications of PLA composites. It described as stated in the abstract and well concluded.
We would like to thank to Reviewer #1 for his/her constructive comments.
The writing style is easy to follow but on page 14 line 582 and some parts from this point was confused. For example, page 17 from line 735.
Thank you for this point. We agree with the Reviewer #1 on the confusing statements given in page 14 line 582 and 17 from line 735 of the original MS. The corrected statements are given in page 16, lines 635-647. We checked and realized that the article mentioned in p. 17 from line 735 of the original MS was not suitable for our review since it is related with 3D printed pure PLA and we replaced this article with a new reference numbered 144 in page 22, lines 859-864 of the revised text, and marked with yellow.
There were various citing papers on biomedical, tissue engineering and antibacterial applications. It will be better to insert additional references that more cover for other applications in the review. The paper informed the improvement of fillers and fibers distribution with PLA.
Thank you for this point. We agree with the Reviewer #1 on the need to insert some additional references which cover for other 3D printing applications of PLA composites in 3D printing. The new references are numbered as 33,133-135,144, 145,147, 148, 154-161, 172, 183-187, 190-192 of the revised MS and marked with yellow throughout the text and in the reference list. The reference numbers are also corrected accordingly throughout the text. In addition, a total of 22 new figures as Figures 6-27 are added in sections 4.1-4.9 in the revised MS as requested by the other reviewers.
Nevertheless, the present review manuscript may not be directly to the scope of this Journal.
We do not agree with the reviewer on this point since this MS was submitted for the special issue of “MDPI-Coatings” journal entitled “Surface Modification for Additive Manufacturing: Materials, Processing, Applications and Future Challenges”
https://www.mdpi.com/journal/coatings/special_issues/SM_Additive_Manufacturing
If it is possible, please add a review part on the modification of PLA composites for the extrusion based 3D printing.
Thank you for this point. We agree with the Reviewer #1 on the need to add a review part on the modification of PLA composites for the extrusion based 3D printing. This addition is carried out in Section 10.4, in Section 4.9.4, in page 34, lines 1277-1303 of the revised MS with the addition of 3 new references (ref 190-192) and marked with yellow.
Reviewer 2 Report
There are some weaknesses through the manuscript which need improvement. Therefore, the submitted manuscript cannot be accepted for publication in this form, but it has a chance of acceptance after a major revision. My comments and suggestions are as follows:
1- Abstract gives information on the main feature of the performed study, but some details about the considered 3D printing process (FDM) must be added.
2- Authors must clarify necessity of the performed review. Objectives of the study, must be clearly mentioned in the last part of introduction.
3- reorganization of the paper is a necessity. Introduction must be finished at the end of second or third page without any subsection. The current subsections of introduction, must be presented in a new section after introduction.
4- The literature study must be enriched. In this respect, authors must read and refer to the following relevant papers: (a) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prostr.2020.10.083 (b) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.03.128 and other published papers.
5- The illustrated figures are in a high quality, but authors must add some figures for other sections, such as 3.3 and 3.4. For applications of PLA in 3D printing of sensors and electromagnetic applications, authors can refer to https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sna.2020.112105 and https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coelec.2020.04.009 Since this manuscript is a review paper, it must be includes most of the recently published papers.
6- All the abbreviations must be introduced when they are used for the first time in the manuscript.
7- In its language layer, the manuscript should be considered for English language editing. There are sentences which have to be rewritten.
8- The conclusion must be more than just a summary of the manuscript. List of references must be updated based on the proposed papers. Please provide all changes by red color in the revised version.
Author Response
Comments and Suggestions for Authors: There are some weaknesses through the manuscript which need improvement. Therefore, the submitted manuscript cannot be accepted for publication in this form, but it has a chance of acceptance after a major revision. My comments and suggestions are as follows:
We would like to thank to Reviewer #2 for his/her comments to improve the initial MS.
1- Abstract gives information on the main feature of the performed study, but some details about the considered 3D printing process (FDM) must be added.
Thank you for this point. We agree with the Reviewer #2 on the lack of the details about the 3D printing process (FDM) in the abstract and added some related comments in the abstract of revised MS in p.1, lines 8-22 (red marked).
2- Authors must clarify necessity of the performed review. Objectives of the study, must be clearly mentioned in the last part of introduction.
Thank you for this point. We agree with the Reviewer #2 on the lack of expressing the objectives of the review and this was done in the new Introduction section, in pgs.1 and 2, lines 31-57 in the revised MS (red marked).
3- Reorganization of the paper is a necessity. Introduction must be finished at the end of second or third page without any subsection. The current subsections of introduction, must be presented in a new section after introduction.
Thank you for this point. We agree with the Reviewer #2 on the need of the reorganization of the article. A new “Introduction” section is written showing the current situation of the PLA composite based 3D printing processes applications and the objectives of the review in pgs.1 and 2, lines 31-57 in the revised MS (red marked). All the other sequential section numbers are corrected in the revised text.
4- The literature study must be enriched. In this respect, authors must read and refer to the following relevant papers: (a) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prostr.2020.10.083 (b) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.03.128 and other published papers.
Thank you for this point. We agree with the Reviewer #2 on the enrichment of the published references. We read and referred to the relevant papers recommended by the Reviewer #2: (a) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prostr.2020.10.083 as new reference 33, in p.5, line 167, and p.7, line 227; (b) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2020.03.128 as new reference 172 in section 4.7 in the revised MS (red marked).
5- The illustrated figures are in a high quality, but authors must add some figures for other sections, such as 3.3 and 3.4.
Thank you for this point. We agree with the comments of all of the reviewers on the lack of enough figures in a review article and a total of 22 new figures as Figures 6-27 were added in sections 4.1-4.9 in the revised MS and marked with yellow.
For applications of PLA in 3D printing of sensors and electromagnetic applications, authors can refer to https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sna.2020.112105 and https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coelec.2020.04.009. Since this manuscript is a review paper, it must be includes most of the recently published papers.
Thank you for this point. We cited the article and https://doi.org/10.1016/j.coelec.2020.04.009 (2020-Abdala) for applications of PLA in 3D printing of sensors as requested by Reviewer #2 in Section 4.5, in p.24, lines 967-973 in the revised MS as reference 155 and marked red. However, we did not cite the article https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sna.2020.112105 (2020-since it gives very little information on PLA composite sensors. All of the new references requested by all of the reviewers are numbered as 33,133-135,144, 145,147, 148, 154-161, 172, 183-187, 190-192 in the revised MS and marked with yellow throughout the text and in the reference list. The reference numbers are also corrected accordingly.
6- All the abbreviations must be introduced when they are used for the first time in the manuscript.
Thank you for this point. We wrote full names before giving any abbreviations for the first time in the manuscript and used abbreviations afterwards in the revised MS.
7- In its language layer, the manuscript should be considered for English language editing. There are sentences which have to be rewritten.
We thank to the Reviewer #2 on this point and corrected all the English related errors throughout the text and marked yellow.
8- The conclusion must be more than just a summary of the manuscript.
Thank you for this point. We agree with the Reviewer #2 and improved the conclusion section in the revised MS in p.34,35, lines 1305-1352 and marked red.
List of references must be updated based on the proposed papers.
All of the new references requested by all of the reviewers are numbered as 33,133-135,144, 145,147, 148, 154-161, 172, 183-187, 190-192 in the revised MS and marked with yellow throughout the text and in the reference list. The reference numbers are also corrected accordingly.
Please provide all changes by red color in the revised version.
The changes related with the comments of Reviewer #2 are marked by red color throughout the revised MS.
Reviewer 3 Report
This work focuses on 3D printing applications based on PLA, the current methods to obtain PLA composites as raw materials to be used in the extrusion based 3D printing, and the applications of the novel PLA composites using extrusion based 3D printing technology.
This is an interesting review paper, nevertheless some minor revisions are needed:
- In section 3.1 (biomedical tissue engineering and antibacterial applications) the authors present several references regarding this topic. Nevertheless, since we are talking about a review paper, the authors should include some figures from the literature. Otherwise, this paper looks more like a report.
- The authors should include some figures in sections 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8 and 3.9.
- In section 3.3 (electrical conductivity applications) the authors could present another's approach in which one could cover/paint the 3d printing PLA samples with conductive paste in order to get high conductivity values.
- In section 3.4 (Electromagnetic Applications) the authors could include some works regarding 3d printing metamaterials based on PLA scaffolds.
- In section 3.6 (Battery applications) some more references should be added regarding 3D-Printing grafene based PLA electrodes.
- In section 3.9.2 (environmental applications) I feel some topics need to be included. I kindly ask the authors to include some information and references regarding the photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants, drug residues etc.
- A few typos and syntax issues should be resolved.
This work could be published in Mdpi coatings after covering the above minor revisions.
Author Response
Comments and Suggestions for Authors: This work focuses on 3D printing applications based on PLA, the current methods to obtain PLA composites as raw materials to be used in the extrusion based 3D printing, and the applications of the novel PLA composites using extrusion based 3D printing technology. This is an interesting review paper, nevertheless some minor revisions are needed:
We would like to thank to Reviewer #3 for his/her constructive comments.
- In section 3.1 (biomedical tissue engineering and antibacterial applications) the authors present several references regarding this topic. Nevertheless, since we are talking about a review paper, the authors should include some figures from the literature. Otherwise, this paper looks more like a report.
We agree with the Reviewer #3 and other reviewers on the lack of enough figures in a review article and two new figures were added as Figures 6 and 7, in new Section 4.1 in p.10 line 381 and p.12, line 446 respectively in the revised text and marked yellow.
- The authors should include some figures in sections 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, 3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8 and 3.9.
We agree with the Reviewer #3 and other reviewers on the lack of enough figures in a review article and a total of 22 new figures as Figures 6-27 were added in new Sections 4.1-4.9 in the revised text and marked yellow.
- In section 3.3 (electrical conductivity applications) the authors could present another's approach in which one could cover/paint the 3D printing PLA samples with conductive paste in order to get high conductivity values.
We agree with the Reviewer #3 on the need to add some additional references in section 3.3 for the electrical conductivity applications of PLA composites in 3D printing. The new references are numbered as 33,133-135, 144, 145,147, 148, 154-161, 172, 183-187, 190-192 in section 4.4 in p.19-22 in the revised MS and marked with yellow. The reference numbers are also corrected accordingly.
- In section 3.4 (Electromagnetic Applications) the authors could include some works regarding 3d printing metamaterials based on PLA scaffolds.
We agree with the Reviewer #3 on the need to add some additional references in section 3.4 for the electromagnetic metamaterials of PLA composites in 3D printing. The new references are numbered as 135-137, 148 in section 4.4 in p.19-22 in the revised MS and marked with yellow. The reference numbers are also corrected accordingly.
- In section 3.6 (Battery applications) some more references should be added regarding 3D-Printing grafene based PLA electrodes.
We agree with the Reviewer #3 on the need to add some additional references in section 3.6 for the battery applications of graphene based PLA composites in 3D printing. The new references are numbered as 160, 161 in Section 4.6 in the revised MS and marked with yellow. The reference numbers are also corrected accordingly.
- In section 3.9.2 (environmental applications) I feel some topics need to be included. I kindly ask the authors to include some information and references regarding the photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants, drug residues etc.
We agree with the Reviewer #3 on the need to add some additional references in section 3.9.2 for the environmental applications of PLA composites in 3D printing including the photocatalytic degradation of organic pollutants, drug residues etc. The new references are numbered as 183-186 in the revised MS and marked with yellow. The reference numbers are also corrected accordingly.
- A few typos and syntax issues should be resolved.
We thank to the Reviewer #3 on this point and corrected all the English related typos and syntax issues throughout the text and marked yellow.
This work could be published in Mdpi Coatings after covering the above minor revisions.
We would like to thank to Reviewer #3 for his/her constructive comments and improving the initial MS to a better article.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript was clarified all the comment points and well arrangement. It is suitable for published in the Journal.
Reviewer 2 Report
The paper has been improved and corresponding modifications have been conducted.
