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OSAKA, Japan -- March 17, 2007 -- With the recent battery recall
issued by Lenovo on lithium-ion batteries produced by Sanyo
Electric Co., last year's mass-scale battery recall by Sony
Corp., and a number of other battery recalls, battery
manufacturers are focused on perfecting their production
processes, Daily Yomiuri Online reports.
The Daily estimates Sanyo recall costs to be around
JPY4,000,000,000.
The root cause of battery overheating and fires, which drove the
recalls remains unclear, the Daily relates. According to Sony,
the batteries overheated because they were contaminated with
metal particles back when they were manufactured. The batteries
recalled by Lenovo, however, are not contaminated like the Sony
batteries, the Daily points out. In the case of the faulty
batteries for Mitsubishi Electric cell phones in Japan, the
battery overheating was due to short-circuiting.
Japanese battery maker Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., the
Daily says, is implementing a new manufacturing technique that
will not cause the resultant batteries to overheat when
contaminated by extraneous material.
The Daily states that Japan Electronics and Information
Technology Industries Association and the Battery Association of
Japan have come together to discuss safety guidelines for battery
packs that conform to Japan Industrial Standards.
Lithium-ion batteries are an indispensable component of a wide
number of electrical products. Besides producing three times
more power than nickel-hydride batteries, they are also
rechargeable. They are, however, more prone to overheating than
lead or nickel-hydride batteries.
The Daily notes that Sony first introduced the lithium-ion
batteries in mobile phones in 1991.
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