Samsung has been forced to stop production of the Galaxy Note 7 after batteries caught fire. But this may not be the battery alone, which is in question.
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The race to the batteries continues : at the launch of its new phones Pixel, ten days ago, Google announced a load capacity of seven hours in just fifteen minutes. Shortly after, a team of researchers in south korea announced the creation of a battery with a capacity a hundred times faster than the average, reported on October 10, the south Korean agency Yonhap.
Autonomy and charging time have become sales arguments for the manufacturers of smartphones. In this unbridled race in the “still longer, “” always faster “, Samsung has to pay the price, forced to abandon the production of its new Galaxy Note 7 and to recall devices already in circulation.
The bill is burdensome for the operator : $ 2.3 billion, or 2 billion euros, just for the recall of the phones. An operating profit affected until march 2017 : the negative impact is estimated at around 2 billion euros for the fourth quarter and approximately $ 799 million euros for the first quarter of 2017, said on Friday 14 October the group in a press release. And, of course, a promise of soaring, to see its flagship phone pull out in the rays at the end of the year.
what is a lithium ion battery ?
1860 : the Frenchman Gaston Planté created the” battery power ” : two sheets of lead separated by a rubber band, and immersed in an acid solution to store the electricity and redistribute it. The operation of the electrochemical reaction associated with an ability to direct the ions in one direction or the other between the two electrodes come to give birth to the first “batteries” rechargeable. There is already talk of load and unburden this new object.
Two centuries later, the basic principles remain unchanged, but advances in research have resulted in the selection of the best materials for greatest effectiveness. Over time, the battery is prompt in cars, in appliances, in the aircraft, and in today’s mobile phones.
Modernization and miniaturization require, the batteries have been called upon to undergo a drastic diet of slimming. Thus, in 1991, Sony files patent for lithium batteries, still expensive at the time, but the power-to-weight-dimensions makes the difference. Quickly, this technological choice will impose on the entire mobile sector, which are not yet smartphones.
incidents repeat
Samsung is not the first manufacturer to make the costs of the dysfunctions related to this battery type : aircraft Boeing nailed to the ground, a Tesla that caught fire, computers that are set on fire… cases are numerous. In the field of telephony, the Finnish Nokia was forced to recall 46 million batteries in 2007 after a hundred incidents of overheating.
Highly flammable, lithium contained in these batteries is sensitive to thermal shock. In addition, there is a risk of short circuit, if the anode and cathode of the battery come into contact, for example, to a shock. This short-circuit leads to overheating of the battery and possibly an ignite. However, to return to the case of the Galaxy Note 7, observers have pointed to the choice made by Samsung of separators especially for to isolate the anode from the cathode.
batteries of different origin, but still accidents
The severe test crossed by Samsung has put under the spotlight the batteries. Perhaps wrongly. The first Galaxy phones Note 7 distributed by Samsung were equipped, at their launch, by batteries Samsung SDI, provided by a subsidiary of the giant south Korean.
After the first incidents reported, and the recall made by the manufacturer, other batteries have been installed in the phone, provided this time by the chinese manufacturer ATL. Yet, again, incidents have occurred.
Read also : How Samsung has come to suspend the sale of the Galaxy Note 7
therefore, the design of the lithium-ion battery may not be the only one to be adversely affected. It might not be ultimately as the manifestation of a design problem more global. Want to allow self always larger batteries ; charge faster ; ask them to occupy a space still more reduced in the device, are all challenges to a technology in which the constraints are known.
now Samsung has to pay the price, but the warning applies to all of its competitors who participate in the same competition.
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