Remelting of Flame Spraying PEEK Coating Using Lasers

International audienceFlame spraying is frequently used for polyether ether ketone (PEEK) and PTFE coating deposition on metallic surfaces. However, this process has a certain number of limitations, particularly on the coating quality such as high porosity, low interfacial adherence, etc. For that reason a thermal post-processing step is often necessary. The objective of this study is to analyze the effects produced during a laser beam heat treatment on morphological structure (compactness) of PEEK coatings and their mechanical properties (adherence and tribology). The influence of the laser beam wavelength (by using a Nd:YAG, CO2 or diode lasers) on compactness of the flame sprayed PEEK coating deposited on metallic substrate (304L) was analyzed. Since the value of laser light absorption coefficient of the PEEK coating depends on the laser wavelength, an optimization of the operational parameters for each laser has been carried out in order to achieve melting but not burning of the PEEK coating. Nevertheless, whatever the laser wavelengths used, the results showed a good effect of the laser treatment: improvement of both polymer coating compactness and its adherence to the substrate

Damage study of cold-sprayed composite materials for application to electrical contacts

International audienceThis work demonstrated the feasibility of cold spray for the achievement of industrial electrical contacts to be used in contactors and circuit breakers. This resulted from the study of cold spray conditions when applied to two types of silver-based particulate composites. Starting materials, primarily powder characteristics and addition content, and spraying conditions were optimized from thorough studies of microstructures and mechanical properties of the cold-sprayed composites. These involve x-ray microtomography and transmission electron microscopy in particular, in addition to tensile tests. Moreover, thermomechanical laser testing of series of cold-sprayed microstructures was successfully developed to investigate into damage mechanisms in coatings. The whole led to a novel phenomenological approach to damage in cold-sprayed materials. Durability tests of the best coatings were carried out using industrial facilities. Cold-sprayed contacts compared more than well with those from conventional powder metallurgy (P/M), which opens a new and cost-attractive production route for electrical contacts

Laser-induced damage in cold-sprayed composite coatings

International audienceAg-Ni composite coatings were achieved using the cold spray process. In this work, two blends were sprayed to lead to coatings with different mechanical properties, which corresponded to either a fine or a coarse microstructure. These coatings were studied using SEM and X-ray microtomography (XMT) to determine the best coating quality through characterization of particle-to-particle bonding. The fine microstructure showed better properties than the coarse microstructure. To avoid time-consuming characterization techniques such as SEM and XMT, an innovative laser characterization test was developed. The principle of this test is based on the thermal shock-induced by a laser pulse at the surface of the coating. Thus, particle interfaces were stressed and cracking damage could occur. SEM observation of cross-sections and top views was carried out to rank the coatings as a function of the generated damage. The influence of heat treatments was also studied. To enhance the approach, thermomechanical simulations have been performed on a real meshed microstructure. The influence of layering effect in the cold spray was shown to be detrimental due to local concentrated stresses

X-ray structure and activities of an essential Mononegavirales L-protein domain

The L protein of mononegaviruses harbours all catalytic activities for genome replication and transcription. It contains six conserved domains (CR-I to -VI; Fig. 1a). CR-III has been linked to polymerase and polyadenylation activity, CR-V to mRNA capping and CR-VI to cap methylation. However, how these activities are choreographed is poorly understood. Here we present the 2.2-Å X-ray structure and activities of CR-VI+, a portion of human Metapneumovirus L consisting of CR-VI and the poorly conserved region at its C terminus, the +domain. The CR-VI domain has a methyltransferase fold, which besides the typical S-adenosylmethionine-binding site (SAMP) also contains a novel pocket (NSP) that can accommodate a nucleoside. CR-VI lacks an obvious cap-binding site, and the SAMP-adjoining site holding the nucleotides undergoing methylation (SUBP) is unusually narrow because of the overhanging +domain. CR-VI+ sequentially methylates caps at their 2'O and N7 positions, and also displays nucleotide triphosphatase activity

X-ray structure and activities of an essential Mononegavirales L-protein domain

International audienceThe L protein of mononegaviruses harbours all catalytic activities for genome replication and transcription. It contains six conserved domains (CR-I to -VI; Fig. 1a). CR-III has been linked to polymerase and polyadenylation activity, CR-V to mRNA capping and CR-VI to cap methylation. However, how these activities are choreographed is poorly understood. Here we present the 2.2-Å X-ray structure and activities of CR-VI+, a portion of human Metapneumovirus L consisting of CR-VI and the poorly conserved region at its C terminus, the +domain. The CR-VI domain has a methyltransferase fold, which besides the typical S-adenosylmethionine-binding site (SAMP) also contains a novel pocket (NSP) that can accommodate a nucleoside. CR-VI lacks an obvious cap-binding site, and the SAMP-adjoining site holding the nucleotides undergoing methylation (SUBP) is unusually narrow because of the overhanging +domain. CR-VI+ sequentially methylates caps at their 2′O and N7 positions, and also displays nucleotide triphosphatase activity

Development of specific dengue virus 2'-O- and N7-methyltransferase assays for antiviral drug screening.

International audienceDengue virus (DENV) protein NS5 carries two mRNA cap methyltransferase (MTase) activities involved in the synthesis of a cap structure, (7Me)GpppA2'OMe-RNA, at the 5'-end of the viral mRNA. The methylation of the cap guanine at its N7-position (N7-MTase, (7Me)GpppA-RNA) is essential for viral replication. The development of high throughput methods to identify specific inhibitors of N7-MTase is hampered by technical limitations in the large scale synthesis of long capped RNAs. In this work, we describe an efficient method to generate such capped RNA, GpppA2'OMe-RNA74, by ligation of two RNA fragments. Then, we use GpppA2'OMe-RNA74 as a substrate to assess DENV N7-MTase activity and to develop a robust and specific activity assay. We applied the same ligation procedure to generate (7Me)GpppA-RNA74 in order to characterize the DENV 2'-O-MTase activity specifically on long capped RNA. We next compared the N7- and 2'-O-MTase inhibition effect of 18 molecules, previously proposed to affect MTase activities. These experiments allow the validation of a rapid and sensitive method easily adaptable for high-throughput inhibitor screening in anti-flaviviral drug development