Samsung has revealed the reasons behind why the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 handsets exploded. A report from last week kind of leaked the information out beforehand and it was suggested that the batteries were to blame, and sure enough during Samsung’s press conference, the company did confirm that there were issues with the batteries.
We have to admit that based on what Samsung revealed, it did seem like a stroke of bad luck that the batteries supplied by both their suppliers had separate issues of their own. Samsung does not mention the companies involved, but has rather referred to them as Battery A from the first recall and Battery B from the second.
With Battery A, Samsung’s investigation found that the negative electrode was deflated in the upper-right corner of the battery. They also found that the tip of the negative electrode was incorrectly located in the curve as opposed to the planar area. In the case of Battery B, high welding burrs on the positive electrode penetrated the insulation tape which caused it to have contact with the negative electrode. In some cases it was even found that a number of batteries were actually shipped without its insulation tape.
What Samsung did not confirm during its presentation was that the second battery’s issues could have been caused by the rush to meet the demand for the phones, which was what The Wall Street Journal had previously reported. However regardless of whatever it was, Samsung has taken responsibility for all of it.
To that end Samsung has also announced that they will be introducing a new safety checking process called the “8-Point Battery Safety Check”. This starts off with the Durability Test that includes overcharging tests, nail puncture tests, and extreme temperatures. It is then followed up by a Visual Inspection, an X-Ray, a Charge and Discharge test, a TVOC (Total Volatile Organic Compound) test to ensure that there is absolutely no chance of the materials leaking, a Disassembling Test, an Accelerated Usage Test to simulate consumer usage scenarios, and last but not least is a Delta Open Circuit Voltage test. This test will ensure that the voltage in the batteries remains the same from when manufacturing to the final assembled product.
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