Composition, Structure, and Properties of Ti, Al, Cr, N, C Multilayer Coatings on AISI W1-7 Alloyed Tool Steel
, Inna Pogrebova 3, Natalya Nikitina 4, Maryna Bobina 1, Svetlana Radchenko 2,*, Nadiia Kharchenko 5, Serhii Kotlyar 1, Ivan Pavlenko 6 and Vitalii Ivanov 7
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
The manuscript submitted for review meets the requirements of the periodical. It is suggested that the manuscript be published with minor corrections:
In the introduction, it is suggested to include information on the use of coatings in other fields of technology, e.g. : DOI:10.1016/j.wear.2021.204076; DOI 10.1016/j.ijrmhm.2021.105726; DOI:10.17531/ein.2018.1.1
The structure of the article should be organized. The chapter "Research methodology" should contain detailed information on the structure of coatings and the substrate. Information on the coating application process and a list of test instruments. In the chapter "Results", only the test results with a possible comment should be included.
To facilitate reading the article, please present the chemical composition of the substrate in the form of a table.
Please enlarge figures 1, 2, 4. In their present form, they are unreadable.
Did the authors assess the influence of surface roughness and adhesion of coatings on the degree of wear? If so, please provide the test results
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
1) The stress field induced by multilayer coatings must be considered in this study.
2) Imterdifussion between different kinds of elements must be discussed in detail.
3) EDS analysis result presented in Fig. 4b is not acceptable due to higher amount of background in EDS spectra. Please revise and use an appropriate spectra.
4) Structual characteristics must be provided in Fig. 2 using textboxes and indexes on each figure.
5) State of the art must be provided for this manuscript in the Introduction section.
Author Response
Please see the attachment
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript presents a study about the Ti, Al, Cr, N, C multilayer coating deposited on the surface of the AISI W1-7 alloy surface. Unfortunately, the manuscript cannot be accepted in its present form. I encourage the authors to revise carefully the manuscript and resubmit it to the journal.
Abstract
Please highlight the novelty of the study and describe briefly the main methods used to obtain and characterize the coating.
Introduction section
The introduction section must be improved.
In the introduction section, a comprehensive and exhaustive review of the state of the art in the field of the study must be provided. Please refer to previous works, and highlight the experiments and results published previously.
The last paragraph must contain the aim of this paper and the methods used.
Research methodology
Change the name of this section in Materials and methods. Also, divide this section into two subsections, one about materials used and one about methods used to coat the steel and characterize the coating.
Line 98-102. Reformulate this paragraph.
Introduce a table with the chemical composition of the base material. Also, introduce a table with the chemical composition of the powder mixture.
Line 118-125. This information can be used in the introduction section, in the last paragraph, not here.
Introduce a table with the studied samples and the difference between them.
Results
How was measured the coating thickness? But the hardness?
Discuss the differences between the studied coating.
Figure 1, 2. Introduce figure labels to highlight the areas of interest for the reader.
Line 141. Figure 1 (c)? or (d)?, or both?. Please write.
Table 1. How was determined the phase composition? It is not enough to be presented in the table, please introduce XRD diffraction data (diffraction pattern) and discuss them.
Figure 3. The distribution of elements for each studied sample is hard to follow, please find a suitable solution to present it.
How was determined the heat resistance of the studied samples? It is not mentioned in Section 2.
Discussion
In this section must be discussed the results obtained in section 3, and no other results.
How was determined the wear resistance? This test is not mentioned in Section 2.
General opinion
From my point of view, the paper is very difficult to read and understand, so it must be restructured and rewritten in some places. Also, details about the tests performed and results are missing (eg XRD pattern, heat resistance etc.).
Author Response
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
Major issue
1) As mentioned in my previous review report, EDS spectra shown in Fig. 5b is not acceptable in the present form due to higher amount of background noises. Please provide an appropriate spectra with full scale peaks.
2) Please specify the y axis title for xrd results: Intensity / counts. Also provide ICDD reference peaks for all detected phases presented in Fig. 2.
3) Detailed comments and discussion are beneficial for xrd results presented in Fig. 2.
Authors must address all the comments mentioned above in the next revision.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 2 Comments
Point 1: As mentioned in my previous review report, EDS spectra shown in Fig. 5b is not acceptable in the present form due to higher amount of background noises. Please provide an appropriate spectra with full scale peaks
Response 1:
The article has been modified, that has allowed us to not use this figure. Therefore, Fig. 5b has been removed from the article.
Point 2: Please specify the y axis title for xrd results: Intensity / counts. Also provide ICDD reference peaks for all detected phases presented in Fig. 2
Response 2:
According to your valuable recommendation, the information has been added.
Point 3: Detailed comments and discussion are beneficial for xrd results presented in Fig. 2. Authors must address all the comments mentioned above in the next revision.
Response 3:
The corresponding information has been added.
Reviewer 3 Report
The manuscript has been improved considerably, but there are still some minor issues that must be addressed:
- Please merge Section 3 and Section 4 into one section named "Results and discussions"
-
The conclusion section should be improved. Conclusions present some of the results discussed above in the paper with very limited discussion. The conclusions can be written by points with highlights.
Author Response
Response to Reviewer 3 Comments
Point 1: Please merge Section 3 and Section 4 into one section named "Results and discussions".
Response 1:
According to your valuable recommendation, the section “Results and Discussion” has been added.
Point 2: The conclusion section should be improved. Conclusions present some of the results discussed above in the paper with very limited discussion. The conclusions can be written by points with highlights.
Response 2:
The corresponding information has been added.
