I guess steel companies paint metals in a way that could be used on this. It makes sense, I think I have seen rolls of already painted steel available at the hardware store.
So painting this on a roll of steel is really not patentable, I am sure that the nanosolar patents don't cover that part for this same reason. Probably the patent is more like the formula of the mixture and possibly the top electrode coating mixture (but I think they mentioned approximately what it was made of in one of the articles).
This talks about the metal painting:
"Swansea University is now leading a partnership with Bangor University, University of Bath, and the Imperial College London to develop commercially viable photovoltaic materials for use within the steel industry.
Paint is applied to steel when it is passed through rollers during the manufacturing process, and it is hoped that the same approach can be used to build up layers of the solar cell system. The researchers’ aim is to produce cells that can be painted onto a flexible steel surface at a rate of 30-40m2 a minute."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080306223745.htm
So painting this on a roll of steel is really not patentable, I am sure that the nanosolar patents don't cover that part for this same reason. Probably the patent is more like the formula of the mixture and possibly the top electrode coating mixture (but I think they mentioned approximately what it was made of in one of the articles).
This talks about the metal painting:
"Swansea University is now leading a partnership with Bangor University, University of Bath, and the Imperial College London to develop commercially viable photovoltaic materials for use within the steel industry.
Paint is applied to steel when it is passed through rollers during the manufacturing process, and it is hoped that the same approach can be used to build up layers of the solar cell system. The researchers’ aim is to produce cells that can be painted onto a flexible steel surface at a rate of 30-40m2 a minute."
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080306223745.htm
