Samsung has revealed the reason behind the explosion of its flagship phones. Samsung Note 7 reported around 200 cases of the phone exploding or catching fire. The debacle caused around 3 billion dollars of loss for the company. The South Korean Electronic company sold over 2.5 million units.
Samsung carried out an investigation lasting around 7 months. The Investigating teams researched why the phones exploded. Samsung rushed the Note 7 in a bid to compete with the new Iphone 7. The Note 7 promised a bigger battery and some new features while keeping the phone thin. The big promises from Samsung left very little margin for error. Three independent consulting bodies and Samsung conducted investigation.
The Note 7 Battery’s Anode and Cathode would come in contact which would lead to the phone burning or exploding.
Samsung SDI was one of the battery suppliers. The SDI’s batteries bent due to lack of space and exploded.
In scientific terms, An aluminium foil separates the Anode and Cathode in a battery . The Anode consists of packed graphite and copper plates. While the cathode consists of many lithium poles. The anode and cathode should always be separate and should never come in contact with each other. In the Note 7 the battery was so packed that the Anode and Cathode poles came in contact. This caused the battery to heat and explode.
Amperex Technology limited also supplied batteries for the Note 7. The batteries were missing separators or had very thin separators causing short circuits.
Samsung Mobile Communications Chief D.J Koh reassured that based on the findings the safety plans were being changed. He added that the company will not only make the devices and batteries safer but will test the batteries at every point in the production process. The phones will have bigger battery space to prevent this kind of problem in the future.
