Samsung battery explosion. Not by Samsung alone: \u200b\u200bwhat other gadgets have exploded? IPhone Explosion Cases

Today Aeroflot has recommended its passengers not to use new Samsung phones - Galaxy Note Seven phablets. Phones cannot be taken on board and checked in baggage. The reason is the self-igniting model. The phone's battery caught fire when charging due to an error during production, according to various sources, from 30 to 70 such cases have already been recorded, and the company was forced to withdraw the entire batch. At the same time, Samsung held a presentation of the exploding model a month earlier than usual. Analysts attributed this to the desire to release the phone before Apple's presentation and set new standards for the industry. What came of this, in the column "Rain".

Aeroflot - following S7, reacted to the marriage in new Samsung phones. In August, after the start of sales of the new model of the Korean company, reports began to appear that phones were exploding in their hands. The company blamed a battery defect as the cause of the fire. Soon, airlines from the United States, Australia, Asian countries, and European Air France and KLM banned passengers from taking Galaxy on board and checking it in. Russian Aeroflot issued such a message a day before the planned start of sales of phones in Russia. Now, as a Samsung spokesman explained, the Galaxy Note7 release has been pushed back to a later fall. The exact date is still unknown, but these will already be phones from the batches of new production, Samsung explained to Rain.

Since the beginning of the scandal, the company has lost $ 22 billion in capitalization, its shares have fallen in price by 11%.
There is an instructive moment in this story. Samsung held the presentation of the problematic phone not in September, as usual, but in early August. Analysts explained this by the desire to introduce the new model before Apple does, in order to secure the model's leadership status in its generation.

The pursuit of battery capacity (it was the power of the processor and its battery that the company set) was the reason that Samsung did not conduct enough tests and launched a crude product on the market, according to Bloomberg analyst Reed Stevenson. Apple and Samsung have been fighting in the magistrates' courts since 2011. Through lawsuits totaling several billion dollars, companies are trying to prove who previously released a new feature or changed the design of the model. The rivalry escalated after Samsung launched expensive phones, while Apple launched budget models.

This summer everyone was waiting for the release of the company's two flagship models. Striving to outstrip its competitors by one month, Samsung lost this competition miserably. Having presented a new phone, which, according to the plan of manufacturers, was supposed to be better than the iPhone in everything, Samsung is now engaged in excuses, maintaining its image and finding new suppliers.

In a situation where so much attention is paid to the war between the two companies, even 70 out of several million phones on fire can cause image damage, from which Samsung will not recover immediately. And although the president of the company justifies that the defect was "too small to notice", users and experts have already decided that Samsung simply overloaded the new model and did not conduct enough tests, trying to overtake Apple in everything.

Apple itself, the main competitor of the Korean company, did not speculate in any way on Samsung's problems, limiting itself to a meaningful statement that their batteries meet all safety standards. In the meantime, there is no need to know about it. ”

In early September, users of the new flagship smartphone Samsung Galaxy Note 7 began to complain massively about phone battery explosions. Samsung has suspended production and is promising a replacement for all buyers. Xaomi smartphones also exploded: the owners were burned.

"Paper" I spoke with Maksim Maksimov, Ph.D. in Engineering and a leading researcher at the Polytechnic University, who is working on the creation of lithium-ion batteries, about why smartphone batteries are still exploding in 2016, and how owners should not be harmed by their own technology.

For two weeks it became known about 35 cases of explosion of Samsung Galaxy Note 7. Because of such incidents, a car has already burned down, and a six-year-old child received burns. According to preliminary data from the company, the explosion was caused by a manufacturing defect in the battery. Several airlines, including Aeroflot, allow Galaxy Note 7 owners to use devices on board.

Why do lithium-ion batteries explode?

The explosion hazard of a battery depends on various factors, in particular on the materials used by the manufacturing companies. Today there is a wide range of battery materials available, which differ in both performance and price. Manufacturers themselves decide which ones are optimal for them.

Explosion issues are relevant because materials may not have been fully qualified to existing standards. As a result, during overloads, processes occur that contribute to the release of energy and gases in batteries, that is, in a confined space, after which an explosion occurs.

One of the main reasons a battery explodes is overcharging. To avoid this, special chips (controllers) are placed on them, which allow you to charge the phone only to a certain voltage: the battery is disconnected from charging, even if the smartphone is still connected to the network. If the electronics fail, the chances of overcharging are high.

Depressurization of batteries can also be one of the causes of fire.

Maxim Maximov, candidate of technical sciences:

In existing cases, it is necessary to look at how and under what circumstances the phones exploded. Perhaps the reason is not even the battery, but microelectronics. For example, the charge-discharge voltage is incorrectly regulated. In such cases, overcharging may occur.

They wrote about my phone model that it explodes. What should I do?

Such a phone must be disposed of, preferably in a specially designated place: batteries contain heavy metals such as cobalt and others that are harmful to the environment.

How do I check if my phone can explode?

Checking the phone in a domestic environment is hardly possible. But if your phone battery is overheating, it's always bad. If during the execution of some processes, for example, playing on the phone, the battery heats up so that you cannot touch it and the temperature reaches 30-40 degrees, you need to contact a specialist.

You can also leave the smartphone to charge for a day and see if it heats up or not. When the battery warms up, it quickly loses its charge, so if the phone starts to discharge faster, this also means that the battery is aging and needs to be replaced. In addition, with dangerous heating, the external state of the battery changes: if the smartphone has "swelling" (your flat smartphone has ceased to be), you need to pay attention to this.

Could the smartphone explosion be caused by manufacturers' attempts to increase battery power?

Performance is increased by installing more powerful processors. If the power consumption processes are not optimized correctly, the processor needs more power. At high rates of energy release, it heats up. That is, heating can be associated with increased productivity. And uncontrolled heating can really lead to a fire and even an explosion.

What can I do to reduce battery overheating?

Handling recommendations are standard: fully charge and fully discharge once a week or once a month. And use a smartphone in the range of 30–80% of its capacity. Unfortunately, there are no absolute rules that can help determine whether your phone will explode or not.

In August, the release of the new Galaxy Note 7 from the Samsung brand took place. At the same time, the company proudly announced that 45 thousand pre-orders from Europe had already been made for the new flagship model. As recently as the eleventh of October, the company stopped completely production of the phablet - the phone lasted no more than two months on the market.

In a hurry, you make people laugh

In its constant race with Apple for "bigger-thinner-more powerful", the South Korean giant Samsung did not deserve to test the new smartphone for explosiveness. And who cares about such trifles when a competitor is going to release a new smartphone with a numbering greater than that of the latest Samsung flagship. The iPhone 7 made the developers nervous and abandoned the production of the sixth Galaxy Note, throwing all their energies into developing the seventh flagship of the Galaxy Note series.

Explosive consequences

The first explosions followed in the first week of the phablet's sales. On August 24, an explosion occurred in China while charging the device. Fortunately, no fire broke out, and the owner escaped with a slight fright.

The second recorded case was less successful - the device exploded right in the car, causing the car to catch fire. There have also been incidents of fires on board aircraft, after which many airlines began to require their passengers to completely turn off their Galaxy Note 7 smartphones.

In the first two weeks after the sale of the flagship, there were about 50 cases of fire caused by the explosion of the device.

On September 2, the company officially began recalling its new product to make additional changes to the device. Then Samsung began to replace defective smartphones with the same model.

But it was strange to expect different behavior from an identical device - smartphones with tenacity of kamikaze continued to undermine the company's reputation.

On October 11, Samsung completely ceased production of the Galaxy Note 7.

Who's guilty?

To understand the cause of the explosions, you need to understand the device of the smartphone itself, namely, the device of the lithium-ion type batteries, since they were the ones that exploded.

Batteries of this type have special controllers that save the battery from overcharging or completely discharging, since both of these factors can destroy the battery. Most Samsung smartphones also have a quick charge function, which was achieved by increasing the voltage, not the amperage.

The Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, for some reason, did not have the same controllers, and the new smaller battery design influenced the convergence of the positive and negative electrodes.

The following happened: the phone was completely discharged (which already had a detrimental effect on the battery itself), and then a shock dose received a charging current (accelerated charging). As a result, overheating occurred, the pressure in the battery case increased, which led to an explosion.

Warning: Pocket Threat!

Since lithium burns at a temperature of 1336 degrees Celsius (a chemist's handbook), you can imagine what such an explosion could turn a room and a person standing next to. But it should be noted that earlier similar explosions (of course, in smaller numbers) occurred with devices from other companies.

It is necessary to consider not only the convenience, but also the danger of lithium batteries, the controllers of which can "fail" at any time. That is why technology manufacturers advise to charge phones and laptops only in person, in order to exclude the possibility of a fire in the room during spontaneous combustion, and never charge devices while sleeping.

Loss of reputation

After the announcement of the termination of production of the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung shares fell 8%, and on October 12, fell another 3%. During these two days, the company lost about $ 20 billion.

Chasing after competitors, the company was unable to make its device secure. Comical, but in the press release of the new flagship, in addition to improving the display graphics and other pleasant bonuses, it was said about the increased security of the smartphone. Loss of customer confidence will lead to irreversible consequences for the company. And already the leaders of Samsung are not worried about the race for leadership with Apple or Google, but about the return of the previous position and the stopping of the stock's falls.

The phone itself will never explode, the battery that powers it, which is now most often a lithium ion battery, can explode.

The number of cases of explosion of gadgets, in which such batteries are located, has increased over the past years so much that lithium-ion and simple lithium batteries have been recognized as dangerous cargo, and since the beginning of 2016, the International Air Transport Organization has banned such batteries from civil aviation. With this, the batteries of gadgets can be carried with them in the salon, however, they must meet certain conditions: have a lithium content of up to two grams and a power of no more than 100 W / h.

How does this happen?

Canadian scientists from the companyCLS wondered what happens inside the battery at the moment of the explosion? They managed to look inside the battery and published their observations in the Electrotechnical Society of Canada. It turned out that everything happens due to a short circuit inside the power source: the lithium of the anode (the positive electrode of the battery) reacts with the electrolyte. The battery begins to heat up, the material from which the cathode (negative electrode) is made is connected to the process, and after the battery heats up to two hundred degrees, a sharp release of oxygen occurs, carbon dioxide and other gases. The battery swells. Often the matter is limited to this, but in some cases the process goes further: tothe oxygen ignites due to the temperature, a small explosion occurs. This is dangerous for a person, first of all, by burns and minor injuries, and for the environment - by fire. There have been cases when, due to the explosion of the telephone, cars and furniture in apartments were on fire. Eyewitnesses say that phones not only burn, but also "boil with chemistry" and can damage other devices or wires that are nearby. But why do they explode?

Charger

Scientists from the Institute of Solid State Chemistry of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Novosibirsk) believe that an explosion of a lithium-ion battery can occur for several reasons, including because of a charging device.

The battery can be damaged if you use an unsuitable charger when charging the phone. Different manufacturers make battery electrodes from different materials and their charging speed is different. Some batteries can withstand charging at an increased speed, others, alas, cannot. If you connect the battery to an outlet using a more powerful "charger", it may be partially destroyed: at higher amperage, the unsuitable material heats up, the battery breaks down. Outwardly, this may not manifest itself in any way, but later the battery explodes.

Chip failure

Another reason is the failure of the device, which is obliged to monitor the charge level on the gadget. This is a tiny chip that monitors the charge level and does not allow the battery to exceed it: if it is exceeded, it simply turns it off. He will do the same when the phone overheats. But if the chip is out of order, expect trouble.

Mechanical damage to the battery

The researchers concluded that most often phones or smartphones explode due to mechanical breakdown of the battery. Breakage can happen imperceptibly - you dropped the battery on the floor while disassembling the device, or your child "played" with it. To break the integrity of the battery inside, it is enough to try to bend it - and breakage is guaranteed. According to statistics, several smartphones caught fire after their owners got into an accident or even just fell off their bike. There is a known case when a smartphone caught fire in the cabin of an aircraft: the owner dropped it on the floor in the passage and stepped on.

Canadian scientists also warn about damage: during the experiments, they saw that the destruction of the battery begins from those places where there was at least the slightest violation of the integrity of the electrodes.

Manufacturing defect

Most often, consumers do not know where, who and at what particular factory makes the batteries that are equipped with gadgets, and the manufacturer sometimes tries to save money and buys cheap products. Minor damage caused by an incompetent worker, violation of technology, small particles of metal or other components trapped in the electrolyte can all cause an emergency.

How to avoid this?

The measures are simple: you need to use only the charger that comes with the phone, handle the battery with care, do not drop the phone, pay attention to the charging speed: if it suddenly speeds up, then the battery is out of order.

You need to pay attention to the temperature of the phone: if it gets very hot in a short time, then this is a bad sign.

It is necessary to carefully put the battery cover back in place: if it is difficult to enter the grooves, it may be that your battery is already swollen and dangerous to use.

Unfortunately, the evolution of the battery industry is very slow. The safest Russian scientists consider lithium-iron-phosphate batteries, but for some reason such batteries are not made small.

The most serious accidents with telephones in our country took place in Primorye, where a telephone caught fire in the hands of a schoolgirl right in the classroom (the child got burned hands and feet and was hospitalized) and in Novosibirsk, where the telephone of the crane's cab exploded.