Samsung’s release of its latest phone, the Galaxy Note 7 has turned into a financial and PR disaster with the halting of sales of the phone and recallof millions of phones that have been sold so far.
The problem has been with batteries on the phones catching fire although Samsung’s statement only alludes to their being a “battery cell issue” and that only 35 cases have been reported so far.
For Samsung, the recall couldn’t have come at a worse time. Apple is due to release its new iPhone, also likely to be numbered the 7, this week and Samsung was hoping to steal some of the news spotlight with its massivepresence at the Berlin IFA consumer electronics show that is going on at the same time.
Exploding phone batteries is not a new thing and they are not confined to Samsung’s phones. There have been many reports of previous phones that have spontaneously burst into flames, in some cases unfortunately injuring, and even killing the carrier of the phone. Even iPhones have suffered this problem with at least one case occurring as a result of impact when a mountain bike rider fell of his bike and landed on his iPhone 6.
Smart phones have batteries that work through the use of lithium ion. These batteries have the advantage of being quick to charge and producing a lot of power in a compact, lightweight format. The problems start when chemical reactions occur, through overcharging, impurities in the battery or through a sudden impact, and the battery starts to overheat. Unchecked, the heat causes the reactions to go faster causing more heat, resulting in “thermal runaway”. Once the temperature hits 150 degrees Celsius, things proceed until the battery, and phone, catches fire.
A particular issue for the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 is that it uses a USB type C socket for its power charging. Using nonstandard USB to USB C adaptors and even USB C cables has been shown to be extremely risky because of the possibility of putting too much voltage into devices and essentially “frying” them. Using such an adaptor may have been the reason behind at least one of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 fires.
Exploding batteries have been common in cheaper “hoverboards” which caught fire on charging. But even shipping batteries can end in disaster with the fatal crash of a 747 UPS plane being blamed on its cargo of lithium ion batteries catching fire.