Samsung released the official results of its investigation into the discontinued Galaxy Note 7’s exploding batteries last month. In the report, the Korean firm disclosed the reasons for the problem that plagued the phone since it was released in August 2016. But it appears that the Galaxy Note 7 ghost is continuing to haunt Samsung.
Fire breaks out at Samsung SDI’s battery factory
According to Tech Times, a minor fire broke out at a factory in China owned by the Samsung affiliate Samsung SDI, which created the defective batteries for the troublesome smartphone. Samsung SDI said the minor fire at its plant in northern China was put out quickly. Photos which showed plumes of black smoke rising into the air were circulated on Weibo.
According to Samsung SDI spokesperson Shin Yong-Doo, the fire did not break out on the production line but in a part of the factory that was used to store waste products like faulty batteries.
Samsung SDI is actually once of the two battery suppliers for the explosion-prone Note 7, which was ultimately killed off by the Korean maker after a global recall. Last month, Samsung completed a probe into the smartphone and cited flaws in design and battery manufacturing for the fiasco.
This month, SDI said it had invested about $129 million (150 billion won) in safety, and its batteries may be used in Samsung’s next smartphone.
Are the Galaxy Note 7 batteries to blame?
The official Sina Weibo account of the Wuqing branch of the Tianjin Fire Department said the products that caught fire in the factory were lithium batteries inside the workshops, including half-finished items that were stored in the factory. The branch said that it sent out about 19 trucks and 110 firefighters to extinguish the fire. This indicates that the “minor fire” might be larger than what was reported, notes Tech Times.
The factory is now running normally. The fire had no large impact on the facility’s operations, causing no injuries or causalities. It is uncertain if the waste products which caught fire are related to the batteries of the recalled Galaxy Note 7. Hopefully the half-finished items which were involved in the fire are not the batteries that will be used for the upcoming Galaxy S8.
Nevertheless, this latest incident further damages the reputation of lithium-ion batteries, which are used to power the current generation’s mobile devices.
