Despite the jump forward in standardising the safety of battery manufacturing, 2006 clearly showed that IEEE 1625 is no longer applicable to modern battery manufacturing. In the space of two years the competition in the industry became more and more fierce and companies attempted to reduce production costs to a minimum whilst bringing out new models ever faster. This situation served as an abject lesson in how sensitive Lithium-ion batteries could be, and this new politic of always faster, always cheaper, has – in the long run – cost companies like Sony a lot more money than they saved in corner-cutting.

In June 2006, a journalist’s Dell laptop caught fire at a conference in Japan. An investigation was carried out and the first clues hinted towards a problem with the overheating battery. In July 2006 these suppositions were confirmed by laboratory tests, and the most surprising thing was that Dell already knew about it. In August 2006 we learned that these batteries were manufactured by Sony and that they were not only distributed to Dell, but also HP, Apple, Lenovo, Fujitsu, Hitachi and more, prompting the biggest series of battery recalls in computing history.

Back to reality: The dangers of badly manufactured batteries

A few days later, Sony explained themselves. They admitted “the presence of small metallic particles in the chemical solution of Lithium-ion batteries” which could cause “a malfunction, even overheating in certain batteries”. The company immediately “modified [their] manufacturing methods of production in order to reduce the number of these particles as well as their size”.

More extensive details were given in October 2006: Nickel particles were introduced in the cell when the electrolyte was placed into the accumulator. Among other things, Sony never explained how these particles arrived in the production chain. Though exploding batteries is no joke, we should at this point remind you that the risk of explosion is relatively small, and one can count the number of victims of exploding laptop syndrome on two hands. Nevertheless, one is one too many.

Instead of taking this problem seriously certain manufacturers, like Sony, delayed the recall of defective batteries for a long time (which is why we continue to see recalls continuing fully a year after the first reported instances). Customers began to vote with their feet however, and (inevitably) all of the manufacturers (even the most stubborn) recalled their products.

In total, approximately 10 million batteries were recalled, costing an estimated $430 million. The other consequence was a meeting of the IEEE, who announced in September 2006 the revision of the IEEE 1625 standard. This revision is supposed to accompany the birth of a new standard, the IEEE 1825, which is aimed specifically at Lithium-ion batteries and batteries with Lithium-ion polymers.