-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- smt007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueBox Build
One trend is to add box build and final assembly to your product offering. In this issue, we explore the opportunities and risks of adding system assembly to your service portfolio.
IPC APEX EXPO 2024 Pre-show
This month’s issue devotes its pages to a comprehensive preview of the IPC APEX EXPO 2024 event. Whether your role is technical or business, if you're new-to-the-industry or seasoned veteran, you'll find value throughout this program.
Boost Your Sales
Every part of your business can be evaluated as a process, including your sales funnel. Optimizing your selling process requires a coordinated effort between marketing and sales. In this issue, industry experts in marketing and sales offer their best advice on how to boost your sales efforts.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - smt007 Magazine
Battery Cell Causes Recall
August 15, 2006 |Estimated reading time: 1 minute
ROUND ROCK, Texas In cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, along with other global regulatory agencies, Dell Inc. will voluntarily recall approximately 4.1 million Dell-branded lithium-ion batteries. The lithium-ion cells, manufactured by Sony, can potentially start a fire within the computer's circuitry. Affected batteries were distributed over two years, from April 1, 2004 July 18, 2006.
If a lithium-ion battery cell reaches 130°C, it enters a thermal runaway state, wherein internals can ignite or explode. Shut-down separators porous plastic-like materials placed between the anode and cathode melt in thermal runaway conditions, sealing off the ionic flow and stopping catastrophic failure. External welding, and temperature gauges inside the cells also counteract the electrochemical reaction. Different form factors include different current-limiting circuitry for product safety.
The battery cells produced by Sony for specific Dell computers exhibited possible combustibility in the event of a circuit short. A tool that crimped the metal casing is said to have created some shards in the metal; these shards occasionally fell into the cathode or anode, said Roger Kay, analyst at Endpoint Technologies. If the shards were sharp, and facing the isolator, they could pierce it, causing the cathode and anode to come into contact, causing a short circuit, and starting a fire.
Preliminary estimates state that 2.7 million U.S. computers, and 1.4 million in other regions, will be retrieved. Industry sources anticipate costs for the recall, reaching more than $200 million, to become Sony's responsibility. To identify affected computers, visit the Dell recall site.