The Effects of Ultrasonic Impact Modification on the Surface Quality of 20CrNiMo Carburized Steel
Denis Vinnik
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Manuscripts should be thoroughly checked for grammatical mistakes.
What is the basis of selecting 20CrNiMo steel in the present work
Abstract and conclusion to be reframed
The introduction part should have clear novality of the paper compared to other research.
Table 1. Chemical composition of 20CrNiMo steel, but what is the acceptable limit as per the standard (needs to be shown in the same table
Figure 3. Heat treatment process flowchart. --on what basis author as selected the temperature range.
Figure 5. Hardness distribution under different processes.- How many samples are considered for hardness measurement- Error graph should be added
Results and discussion part needs to be reframed in the entire manuscript.
Recent References to be added in the manuscript
Manuscripts should be thoroughly checked for grammatical mistakes.
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
Thank you very much for providing feedback for our manuscript titled The Effects of Ultrasonic Impact Modification on the Surface Quality of 20CrNiMo Carburized Steel We appreciate your time and effort in providing detailed comments and suggestions to improve the quality of our work.
We have carefully considered all your comments and have made the following revisions to the manuscript coatings
Point 1: Manuscripts should be thoroughly checked for grammatical mistakes.
Response 1：Thank you for your comment. I have corrected the grammatical mistakes and marked them in the manuscript.
Point 2: What is the basis of selecting 20CrNiMo steel in the present work.
Response 2：20CrNiMo is a common low carbon alloy steel, its toughness is better, hardenability is high, cold cracking tendency is small, no tempering brittleness, after carburizing can ob-tain a gradient structure of hard core toughness, with good bearing and impact resistance, is widely used in the manufacture of key components, its treated surface quality directly affects what kind of service requirements it can meet, so it has certain practical value
Point 3: Abstract and conclusion to be reframed.
Response 3：Based on your feedback, detailed comparison of the metallographic diagrams has been carried out, it is found that low-carbon structures exhibit significant deformation and grain refinement after ultrasonic impact, while the deformation observed in the carburized layer structure is very limited. Therefore, we have revised the abstract and conclusion by deleting the description of grain refinement in the carburized layer and adding the main reason for the high amplitude residual stress obtained by high carbon martensite after ultrasonic impact to the main text discussion, please see the revised manuscript for details.
Point 4: Table 1. Chemical composition of 20CrNiMo steel, but what is the acceptable limit as per the standard (needs to be shown in the same table.
Response 4：The composition requirements of 20CrNiMo selected refers to the Chinese National Standard GB/T3077-2015 are as follows, which has been revised synchronously in this manuscript.
|
Element |
C |
Si |
Mn |
S |
P |
Cr |
Ni |
Mo |
Fe |
|
wt. % |
0.17-0.23 |
0.17-0.37 |
0.60-0.95 |
≤0.02 |
≤0.02 |
0.40-0.70 |
0.35-0.75 |
0.20-0.30 |
margin |
Point 5: Figure 3. Heat treatment process flowchart. --on what basis author as selected the temperature range.
Response 5：
Thank you for your comment. 20CrNiMo is a kind of hypoeutectoid steel. Referring to the standard JB/T 11078-2011 of the China Machinery Standards Industry Association, the Ac3 temperature of 20CrNiMo is about 850 ℃, and the common carburizing temperature is between 920 ℃ and 980 ℃. Considering the uneven distribution of furnace temperature and avoiding grain growth, 920 ℃ carburizing and 860 ℃ quenching are adopted.
Point 6: Results and discussion part needs to be reframed in the entire manuscript.
Response 6：Thank you for your suggestion. The results and discussion part has been updated, please see the revised manuscript for details.
Point 7: Recent References to be added in the manuscript
Response 7：Thank you for your comment. I have corrected the References and marked them in the manuscript.
We believe that these revisions have addressed the issues and concerns raised in your feedback and have improved the quality of the manuscript. We have also carefully proofread the manuscript to ensure that there are no errors or typos.
Once again, we would like to express our gratitude for your valuable feedback, which has helped us to improve our manuscript. We hope that you find our revised manuscript satisfactory and look forward to hearing your decision.
Thank you again for your time and consideration.
Best regards,
Qinshan jiang
Reviewer 2 Report
Referee Report
on paper “The Effects of Ultrasonic Impact Modifcation on the Surface Quality of 20CrNiMo Carburized Steel”
by Qingshan Jiang, Li Zhu, Junying Chen, Xiuyu Chen, Jianchun Weng, Zhilong Xu and Zhenye Zhao
Submitted to Coatings
This article studied the effects of ultrasonic impact process parameters on the surface integrity of 20CrNiMo carlmrizing steel through the USR test on a 20CrNiMo carburized test sample and the characterization of surface roughness, residual compressive stress, microhardness, and other performance parameters. This is an interesting article and the results are beyond doubt. Although there is some lack of explanation, the results may be worthy of the attention of the readers of the Coatings after brutal revision. I am forced to make a number of comments that must be taken into account and corrected before the article is accepted for publication in Coatings.
Thus, my decision is major revision.
Comments
1. First of all, English needs to be improved.
2. Introduction should be improved. First, the novelty of this work is not clear, although its practical significance is indisputable.
3. Please explain why you are talking about hardening by grain size reduction. After all, there are two conflicting theories about the effect of grain size on hardness. Both deal with the influence of the fraction of grain boundaries. In the first case, the grain boundaries are obstacles to the propagation of defects in the deformation process [10.1016/j.ijmecsci.2021.106952]. In the second case, a large fraction of grain boundaries compared to the volume fraction of grains contributes to a simpler propagation of defects. The choice of one or the other mechanism depends on many factors. The first is grain size.
4. For the reason described in paragraph 3, I believe that it is necessary to determine the size of the grains and build diagrams of the distribution of their sizes, as was done in the articles [10.1016/j.jallcom.2018.03.245, 10.1016/j.surfcoat.2017.04.005, 10.1007/s11665-018-3483-7].
5. In addition, the proportion of boundaries must be additionally calculated for a more complete understanding of the detected phenomena.
6. There is no satisfactory explanation of the observed phenomena in the conclusions. A scientific article requires finding causal relationships as far as possible. This should be reflected in the conclusions. Otherwise it's more like a technical report.
7. Please add information about measurement uncertainty
my decision is major revision.
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
Please check the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.docx
Reviewer 3 Report
The main question addressed by the research is the effect of ultrasonic impact modification on the surface quality of 20CrNiMo carburized steel. The study aims to determine the optimal parameters of the ultrasonic impact modification process, such as static preload and the number of impact rounds, in order to achieve the best surface quality in terms of surface roughness, microhardness, and residual compressive stress.
In terms of the topic's originality or relevance in the field, this research addresses a specific gap by focusing on the application of ultrasonic impact modification on the surface quality of carburized steel. While carburizing is a well-known process in metallurgy, the study investigates the use of ultrasonic impact modification as a means to enhance the surface quality of carburized steel. By analyzing various surface parameters, the research provides insights into the effects of specific process parameters on the surface properties of the steel. Therefore, the topic can be considered both original and relevant in the field as it contributes to the understanding of surface modification techniques for carburized steel and their impact on surface quality.
Some technical comments:
Line 25: The Introduction chapter should not be numbered, or it should start with 1 instead of 0.
Line 52: The contact fatigue life increased from 5.37×105 to 9.04×105. I think that the last digits of both number should be in upper index. I.e. 5.37x105 to 9.04x105, in other words 537000 to 904000.
The references are appropriate and numerous.
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
Thank you very much for providing feedback for our manuscript titled The Effects of Ultrasonic Impact Modification on the Surface Quality of 20CrNiMo Carburized Steel We appreciate your time and effort in providing detailed comments and suggestions to improve the quality of our work.
We have carefully considered all your comments and have made the following revisions for the manuscript coatings-2507607
Point : Some expressions are less accurate.
Response 3：Based on your opinion, I have revised this, see the revised paper for details.
We believe that these revisions have addressed the issues and concerns raised in your feedback and have improved the quality of the manuscript. We have also carefully proofread the manuscript to ensure that there are no errors or typos.
Once again, we would like to express our gratitude for your valuable feedback, which has helped us to improve our manuscript. We hope that you find our revised manuscript satisfactory and look forward to hearing your decision.
Thank you again for your time and consideration.
Best regards,
Qinshan jiang
Reviewer 4 Report
The article investigates the effect of surface impact hardening on carburized steel, focusing hardenss profile, residual stress and surface roughness. The treatment providing the best combination of these properties is identified. The experimental procedure and results are clearly presented.
Sometimes too many decimals are used, for example in abstract “1,195.36 MPa” should be “1,195 MPa” and so on.
Sometimes superscript/subscript is missing, for example page 2 line 52 “5.37x105” should be “5.37x105”.
Table 2: Please insert the load for group 10-12 (1200N), otherwise it is confusing.
There are minor issues with English grammar.
“Carlmrized” is written instead of “Carburized” in several places, please correct.
The word “strong” is sometimes incorrectly used, for example in page 1, line 36: “Strong core” should probably be “ductile core”.
“Impact” should sometimes be “impact round”, for example page 8 line 241 “six impacts” should be “six impact rounds”.
Page 2, line 89 and 91: “elasticoplastic” should be “elastoplastic”
Page 3, line 102: “ultra-higher” should be “ultra-high”
Page 4, line 138-140: Please rephrase this sentence, it is confusing.
Table 1: Chinese letter is present, please replace with “balance” or similar
Page 5 line 158: “100 gf” should be “100 gr”
Page 7 line 211: “natal” should be “nital”
Page 7 line 211: “corrosion” should be “etching”
Page 9 line 266: “rule” should probably be “tendency”?
Author Response
Dear reviewer,
Thank you very much for providing feedback for our manuscript titled The Effects of Ultrasonic Impact Modification on the Surface Quality of 20CrNiMo Carburized Steel We appreciate your time and effort in providing detailed comments and suggestions to improve the quality of our work.
We have carefully considered all your comments and have made the following revisions for the manuscript coatings-2507607
Point : Some expressions are less accurate.
Response 3：Based on your opinion, I have revised this, see the revised paper for details.
We believe that these revisions have addressed the issues and concerns raised in your feedback and have improved the quality of the manuscript. We have also carefully proofread the manuscript to ensure that there are no errors or typos.
Once again, we would like to express our gratitude for your valuable feedback, which has helped us to improve our manuscript. We hope that you find our revised manuscript satisfactory and look forward to hearing your decision.
Thank you again for your time and consideration.
Best regards,
Qinshan jiang
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Author as implemented all the corrections in the paper and he has answered throughly for all quaries.
Author Response
Thank you
Reviewer 2 Report
Accept
Accept
Author Response
Thank you
