São Jose dos Campos - SP, May 14, 2008.

To: Editor-in-Chief:

Professor A.E. Tekkaya

University of Dortmund, Germany

Ref.: re-submission of the corrected paper No.: PROTEC-D-08-00464 “CERAMICS CUTTING TOOLS: DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION ON GREY CAST IRON” to International Journal of Materials Processing Technology

Dear Professor Dr. A.E. Tekkaya

I return to you for re-submission our revised paper as a new manuscript No.: PROTEC-D-08-00464 “CERAMICS CUTTING TOOLS: DEVELOPMENT AND APPLICATION ON GRAY CAST IRON”, including the corrections suggested by the referees.

Dear Dr. Tekkaya,

Here is the list of changes made in order to comply with the referees’ recommendations:

LIST OF CHANGES - Manuscript No.: PROTEC-D-08-00464

1) The revised manuscript has been rewritten in third person for any errors of English. More than a single sentence deals with the machining trials.

Reviewer #1 comments:

All points have been enclosed in the manuscript:

-the measured the cutting temperature in process turning has been made by an infrared pyrometer fixed in the carriage and 20 cm from cutting-edge (without physical contact);

- in relation to the machining performance of new cutting tool section has been rewritten and presents longs discussions and new informations that has now been fully included by authors;

- the figures 7, 8, 9 and 10 has now been fully explored. The wear mechanism has been clarified. The amount of crater wear was negligible. The kinds of tool wear in figure 9 has been clarified and showed. The breakage in figure 7 and 8 has been identified and showed (arrow);

- the roughness presented peaks in initial cutting time (Figure 12) because of initial accommodation between new cutting tool/workpiece;

- In figure 13, the results have been justified. This phenomenon has now been fully clarified;

- Conclusions: New information has been fully implemented.

Reviewer #2 comments:

1)  The cutting speeds used have been clarified. The used range has been selected because it’s a new cutting tool and we had to choose a starting point. The behavior at higher speeds can present decisive advantage. This is made possible by the layer of graphite coating the surface of the tool, giving an extremely low value of the friction coefficient leading to better stability between the cutting tool and the workpiece;

2)  The presentation of details regarding on line measuremnts of temperatures and coefficient of friction (descibed as used in the paper) has now been fully clarified;

3)  The machining performance of the pair ceramic/cast iron was fully discussed. Under such high cutting temperature conditions, the graphite solid lubricant may be released and smeared, presenting high performance machining;

4)  Figures numbers has now been added, as its title.

5)  The wear propagation presented has detailed explanation of the unusual behavior;

6)  The results on the temperatures during machining have now theoretical explanation to justify/explain the presented behaviour. This point has now been fully clarified;

7)  The figures presenting results on surface finish has now been fully explored on their appearance (the cutting speed was found to have an obvious effect on the friction coefficient at the tool/chip interface);

8)  It has been explained theoretically the heat transfer during the cutting to clarify heat distribution between the ceramic tool and cast iron workpiece has been clarified.


Thank you very much for comments and suggestions made by the reviewers to improve the quality of the manuscript. Please do not hesitate to contact the authors if any supplementary action should be taken.

My address for further correspondence is the following:

Dr. José Vitor Candido de Souza

Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais – INPE/LAS

Av. dos Astronautas,1.758, São José dos Campos - SP, 12245-970, Brazil.

E-mail:

With best regards,

José Vitor Candido de Souza

Sede: Av. dos Astronautas, 1758, 12227-010 São José dos Campos (SP) Brasil tel +55-12-39456000