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More Lithium Battery Product Recalls Predicted (mercurynews.com)
While "the vast majority" of lithium-ion batteries will never malfunction, lithium itself "is highly combustible and batteries made with it are subject to 'thermal runaway'," which can be triggered by damage -- or by bad design. An anonymous reader quotes the San Jose Mercury News:
Battery and electronics manufacturers take numerous steps to try to mitigate such dangers... But while the industry has tried to make lithium-ion batteries safer, 'the technology itself isn't foolproof,' said Ravi Manghani, director of energy storage research at GTM Research... And there's reason to think that the problem could get worse before it gets better. Consumer demand for devices that are ever more powerful and longer lasting has encouraged manufacturers to make batteries that can hold even more charge. To do that, they typically pack the battery cells closer and closer together...
Since June of this year, educational toy company Roylco recalled 1,400 light tables designed for kids... Razor, Swagway and some eight other manufacturers recalled a total of 500,000 hoverboards. And HP and Sony between them recalled more than 42,000 notebook computers. All for similar reasons -- lithium-ion batteries that either had caught fire or which have posed a fire hazard... Other notorious examples include the several different Tesla Model S's that have caught fire, typically after crashes compromised their battery packs, and Sony's wide-scale recall a decade ago of the batteries that powered its Vaio and other laptop computers.
In a related story, Samsung's recall of their Note 7 is now expected to cost $5.3 billion.
Since June of this year, educational toy company Roylco recalled 1,400 light tables designed for kids... Razor, Swagway and some eight other manufacturers recalled a total of 500,000 hoverboards. And HP and Sony between them recalled more than 42,000 notebook computers. All for similar reasons -- lithium-ion batteries that either had caught fire or which have posed a fire hazard... Other notorious examples include the several different Tesla Model S's that have caught fire, typically after crashes compromised their battery packs, and Sony's wide-scale recall a decade ago of the batteries that powered its Vaio and other laptop computers.
In a related story, Samsung's recall of their Note 7 is now expected to cost $5.3 billion.
Make the devices thicker. Nobody wants a thin phone, just to put in in otterbox. Just make the device as thick as if it were in a case, and use the extra space for battery. On an iPhone you will get 3 times the battery if not more
My phone blows up less, and it has a replaceable battery. It isn't any thicker than a wallet. It fits in a pocket. Maybe I'm just old, but I don't really benefit if it gets thinner. It isn't an `80s backpack phone, after all.
They really need to clue in and start taking batteries seriously again, like in the olden days. Household-name battery companies should be stepping in and releasing OEM lithium battery packs. It could be a major selling point to have "Now with Trusted Brand(TM) battery pack! Think of the Children!"
No, not totally true because no one is going to force you to buy a Samsung product, you have to see the value at the higher price for this to work.
It seems to me this battery is the one we've been waiting for. Yes a little less peak energy storage but it's thermal properties and lifetime mean that it can be recharged fast and will degrade less over the life of the phone. Effectively that means in practice the phone will perform better than Li ion. I don't think it's going to cost more either. Yes right now it is slightly pricier but it doesn't have the economy of scale working for it yet so the jury may be out on that.
Is it just thickness then? That's short sighted.
It does have one double edged sword. It's voltage is 3.2v so it's absolutely perfect for running 3.3v chips right off the battery without a regulator. 3.7v is slightly above many 3.3v chip max voltages so you end up with a regulator and that's a loss. You can run the 3.2v Lifepo4 all the way up to 3.6V at max charge but at anything less than 95% charge it's under 3.4v making it safe at all times for 3.3v electronics.
The flip side of beinbg below 3.6v is if you really do need a regulator for some reason then your V_drop has to be very small and you don't have much headroom above the minimum regulator voltage, or you have to drop the operating voltage down lower than 3 volts. A lot of 3.3v chips tend to start sucking current hard when you drop them below 3v so that headrooom matters in a big way.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Been saying this a while. Anyone with an electronics background that also knows anything about chemistry could tell you these Lithium Ion or polymer batteries are ticking time bombs, just waiting for an excuse to go off. Usually there are 3 backups. 1 in the phone (or charging device) and 2 in the battery. The charging circuit, will cut off current once it reaches the programmed level. The thermistor(s) in the battery, will tell the charging circuit to stop the current flow, if the battery heats up to whatever the cutoff level is. And the fail safe, is the thermal fuse. If all else fales, and the battery continues to heat up, the thermal fuse will melt in two pieces, which cuts off all current flow (and requiring the battery to be replaced, it is a one shot device). But, if the thermal fuse is close to the breakdown of the chemicals of the battery, it might be too late to prevent a thermal runaway. If phone manufacturers would stop cow-towing to the "fashion designers" in Hollywood and make phones that aren't "slim and stylish" for the lDIOT hollywood types that run around all the time with their phones in their hand, and start "beefing up" the cases, it would provide enough ROOM inside a phone, to go back to a removable battery. The batteries in non removable battery phones, typically do not have a protective plastic case surrounding them. That plastic case takes up room, room that can be used to increase the capacity of the battery, which given the manufacturers silly idea of continuing to increase the processor speed, screen density etc, need a bigger and bigger battery, in hopes it will make it through the entire day, without needing charging. Now, the problem is you combine a battery that can flex, that has as much capacity that they can squeeze into it, coupled with a very thin casing, then, place said phone, in your tight jeans back pocket, front pocket, and sit down and get up a few dozen times a day and that battery starts to flex. Once you break down the barrier shield that keeps everything separated (anode, cathode, electrolyte) and they all get together, you end up with a thermal runaway. People "think" they wanted thinner and thinner phones, because that's what the industry produced, and they go along like little sheep. Now, you are stuck with non removable batteries, thin phones and the result is BOOM! For Samsung's part, they tried to "one up" Apple, by releasing their phone, without really testing for durability. This time, it costs them DEARLY!