Samsung will reportedly place the blame for the Note 7 fires on the handset's batteries

[midian182]

Two weeks ago, it was reported that Samsung would soon reveal the results of its official investigation into the Galaxy Note 7 fires. While the report isn't due until next week, the company has concluded that the handset’s battery was mainly responsible for the problems, according to Reuters.

It’s common knowledge that the fires were related to the battery, but it was assumed that other factors played a big part. Following the first recall, Samsung blamed its affiliate battery division, Samsung SDI, for supplying faulty components, assuring people that the replacements, from China’s ATL, were fine. But they also started to explode, leading to a second recall and the Note 7’s total demise.

Reuters' source, who is said to be “a person familiar with the matter,” said the results will be announced on January 23 - the day before Samsung reveals its detailed fourth-quarter earnings. The anonymous person added that the firm was able to replicate the fires during its investigation and the cause couldn’t be attributed to hardware or software issues.

If accurate, the official report contradicts the findings from manufacturing technology company Instrumental, which concluded that a “fundamental problem with the design” was the cause of the exploding Note 7s. It said that the battery was so tightly packed inside the handset, pressure from natural swelling and casing stress was damaging the separator layers that keep the positive and negative layers apart.

Samsung will need to assure people that the Note 7 debacle was a one-off and that such a damaging incident will never occur again. "They've got to make sure they come clean and they've got to reassure buyers as to why this won't happen again," said Bryan Ma, a Singapore-based analyst for researcher IDC.

Placing the blame almost entirely on the batteries seems strange, especially as the same problem occurred in batteries from different suppliers. Ma agrees with Instrumental’s findings – that the overly aggressive design didn’t leave enough room for the battery. “To me it'd be surprising if they said it was a supplier issue," he said.

We’ll just have to wait until next week to find out the full details of Samsung’s report.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/67784-samsung-reportedly-place-blame-note-7-fires-batteries.html

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

I don't think it will happen again in a hurry but I suppose we'll never know the whole truth behind the explosions. Corporations, just like governments, and even Joe Citizen never let anyone fully know about their shady going on's and who can blame 'em.

 

[Bigtruckseries]

If they hadn't tried to copy the iPhone and create non-user replaceable batteries-something that their phones were actually liked for-then they never would've had this problem. Even if they had bad batteries they could've simply replace the batteries rather than having to recall all the damn phones.

 

[Kibaruk]

“fundamental problem with the design” was the cause of the exploding Note 7s. It said that the battery was so tightly packed inside the handset, pressure from natural swelling and casing stress was damaging the separator layers that keep the positive and negative layers apart.

So... the battery? They may have sliced a couple of mAh to make more room for swelling and stress-proof. To me, that is battery, being the fundamental design or not, it's still the battery the issue that made the device explode.

 

[Puiu]

“fundamental problem with the design” was the cause of the exploding Note 7s. It said that the battery was so tightly packed inside the handset, pressure from natural swelling and casing stress was damaging the separator layers that keep the positive and negative layers apart.

So... the battery? They may have sliced a couple of mAh to make more room for swelling and stress-proof. To me, that is battery, being the fundamental design or not, it's still the battery the issue that made the device explode.

it's a combination of both.

 

[MonsterZero]

If they hadn't tried to copy the iPhone and create non-user replaceable batteries-something that their phones were actually liked for-then they never would've had this problem. Even if they had bad batteries they could've simply replace the batteries rather than having to recall all the damn phones.

Every manufacturer is moving away from replaceable batteries. Water resistance is more important that the ability to change your battery. No argument can be made for a removable battery, it's simply going to remain a thing of the past.

As for coping the iphone, try harder noob. iPhone is miles behind in features and looks.

Samsung is going to smash so hard this year when the Note8 drops, hell even the Galaxy S8 will be 2 years ahead of crapple's technology.

 

[Kibaruk]

it's a combination of both.

No it's not both, it's not the "design" exploding, it's the battery, for it being too tight or stressed, they could've changed that shaving off some battery life, right?

 

[Uncle Al]

So the explanation that the case was so tight it would not allow for the normal expansion of the battery as it gets warmer wasn't the case (no pun intended) or are we going to learn a new more sinister reason? I can hardly wait!

 

[MoeJoe]

Regurgitated junk news is Fake News.

 

[Invizibleyez]

Real reason, Shoddy engineering. Any decent electrical engineer knows that batteries expand and contract much more than other components of the phone. Also, batteries heat up and cool down more than almost any other component. If I designed something with water in it knowing it was going to freeze, and I didn't allow for the expansion of the water when it freezes, do I blame the water?

 

[cliffordcooley]

There was never any doubt in my mind the batteries were the problem. Seriously why would anyone think otherwise?

 

[bmw95]

Wasn't there another post awhile back that concluded the batteries were not the problem, and the device was? I think it was something like, because the components were so tightly packed in the chassis, a wire shorted out over time, causing the battery to eventually explode.

 

[Darth Shiv]

If they hadn't tried to copy the iPhone and create non-user replaceable batteries-something that their phones were actually liked for-then they never would've had this problem. Even if they had bad batteries they could've simply replace the batteries rather than having to recall all the damn phones.

Every manufacturer is moving away from replaceable batteries. Water resistance is more important that the ability to change your battery. No argument can be made for a removable battery, it's simply going to remain a thing of the past.

As for coping the iphone, try harder noob. iPhone is miles behind in features and looks.

Samsung is going to smash so hard this year when the Note8 drops, hell even the Galaxy S8 will be 2 years ahead of crapple's technology.

I love Samsung phones but for the love of god can they please fix Android's security model and UI. Not giving control over microphone, photos, data etc individually for apps is just stupid. Apple got that one right and it would be a great boost for the OS if they fix things like this.

 

[koblongata]

it's a combination of both.

No it's not both, it's not the "design" exploding, it's the battery, for it being too tight or stressed, they could've changed that shaving off some battery life, right?

Without the screen curvature which is less rigid structurally AND water resistant procedure which shrinks the phone ever so slightly.
There won't be enough pressure to short circuiting the battery.
Batteries from different suppliers all exploded don't you see?
Of course the "design" won't explode, but the design definitely causes it.
Those batteries would have been fine in phones with more conventional casing.

 

[Kibaruk]

Without the screen curvature which is less rigid structurally AND water resistant procedure which shrinks the phone ever so slightly.
There won't be enough pressure to short circuiting the battery.
Batteries from different suppliers all exploded don't you see?
Of course the "design" won't explode, but the design definitely causes it.
Those batteries would have been fine in phones with more conventional casing.

So that being the case... why not shave a couple millimeters from the battery and call it a day? If it had been that simple, there would've been a solution. If it had been that simple, and Samsung having those results by the third party company, don't you think they could've just replied a whole lot early with a real statement?

 

[Puiu]

No it's not both, it's not the "design" exploding, it's the battery, for it being too tight or stressed, they could've changed that shaving off some battery life, right?

you do realise that what you said is fairly stupid right? were you drunk when you wrote it?

I would like to reserve my right to laugh out loud because of reading that. (I'll also save it as a screenshot)

 

[koblongata]

So that being the case... why not shave a couple millimeters from the battery and call it a day? If it had been that simple, there would've been a solution. If it had been that simple, and Samsung having those results by the third party company, don't you think they could've just replied a whole lot early with a real statement?

If you have read the initial report, there were x-ray images of the battery internals, and it shows the all the plates inside were bent alone the screen curvature and in contact of each other. But they continued on with the "investigation", because if they just go ahead and shave a millimeter from the battery and called it a day, then that means they admit it's their design problem. You still don't see what they are trying to do here???

 

[Kibaruk]

you do realise that what you said is fairly stupid right? were you drunk when you wrote it?

Well it was the battery right? lol

 

[koblongata]

Well it was the battery right? lol

What you are trying to do here is like a Car Manufacture blaming the fuel is exploding.

 

[captaincranky]

Oh poop. Here I was hoping they'd blame it on one of their engineers being paid off by Apple to screw up the charging system, so that we'd have at least 7 years of articles about the criminal trial and impending lawsuit that followed here Techspot to bash Apple about.

(I'm not normally a big conspiracy theorist, but that one somehow really resonates with me)! (y)

 

[Kibaruk]

you do realise that what you said is fairly stupid right? were you drunk when you wrote it?

I would like to reserve my right to laugh out loud because of reading that. (I'll also save it as a screenshot)

Not my proudest moment trying to explain it... yet, the "fundamental design flaw" was always the battery and not the device itself as they put it, even if it was that packed and xrays and everything, it's the battery design that caused the issue trying to put as much mAhs in that space to improve battery life by shaving the separators within itself, ergo, the battery was and is the issue.