Samsung has been all but tight lipped about what exactly caused its critically acclaimed Note 7 phablets to explode. However, it has since come out of silence and to a dossier on what exactly caused the Note 7 to explode and cost it an astonishing $5 billion on recalled inventory and having to deal with one of the worst PR last year.
Ahead of the Galaxy S8 launch, nothing can be more comforting that a detailed explanation about what exactly went wrong and how it has been overcome to guarantee safety for future Samsung handsets owners. Not forgetting cleansing an already tainted name of the renowned brand’s mobile division.
Samsung blames two separate battery incidents that led to explosions of its Note 7 phablets, one affecting the first batch while the other affected replaced Note 7s that caused both to overheat and ahem, explode! (Remember even the replaced Note 7s exploded)
Our commitment to customer safety and satisfaction has never been stronger. pic.twitter.com/Dthv7tkf1U
— Samsung Mobile (@SamsungMobile) January 23, 2017
It should be noted that batteries in the Note 7s were manufactured by two different suppliers. Samsung’s own SDI whose batteries were responsible for the first recall and Amperex Technology that admittedly said it supplied Note 7 batteries.
The first battery (Samsung presumably calls it battery A) suffered from a design flaw where its external casing was too small for the components inside, causing it to short-circuit and ignite. The battery had a pouch with limited allowance for contraction and expansion of the battery during the course of charging and discharging cycles. This caused the positive and negative electrodes to touch, short-circuiting the battery and kaboom, it exploded.
The second battery (Battery B) presumably from Amperex did not exhibit the same design flaw as battery A. Batteries from this specific supplier worked fine but in a rush to churn out enough batteries for replacement units, fatal errors were committed and manufacturing defects like leaving protrusions from the ultrasonic welding process occurred culminating into short-circuiting as the case before. So this is an issue relatable to poor quality control.
Samsung has since instituted quality checks, multi-layer safety measures, a battery advisory group and an 8-point Battery Safety Check that includes the Durability text, Visual inspection, X-Ray, Charge and discharge test, Total Volatile Organic Compound Test (TVOC Test), Disassembling Test, Accelerated Usage Test and the Delta Open Circuit Voltage Test (ΔOCV Test). All these are aimed at curbing any further incidents of battery explosions.
