The South Korean government has put a report out on its findings regarding the exploding Galaxy Note7 handset and its possible battery flaws. The government’s findings corroborated Samsung’s own results, and finally put the Note7 saga to rest.
The Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS), a part of the government, found that the batteries were the primary cause of the fires and explosions that happened during the short life of the Note7 handset. The agency found through utilizing the Korea Testing Laboratory (KTL) that the phone’s hardware itself was not to blame for the fatal flaws that plagued the device. Echoing Samsung’s own claims and reports, KATS said via a press release:
Faulty manufacturing processes which have resulted in protruding swellings on the anode tab and poor attachment of insulating tape are highly likely to be the cause. The KTL has also looked into possible root causes of the fires such as the handset's power control or battery protection circuit, external pressure and lack of space for the embedded battery cell. But it could not find any abnormalities.
KATS was one of the government agencies that suggested the Note7 should be recalled after multiple incidents of exploding handsets were reported.
KATS says it will enforce higher safety and testing standards for battery manufacturers, saying that having the resource to test a larger number of devices would have solved this problem earlier. KATS only tested around 200 devices, compared to Samsung’s own investigation which reportedly looked at 200,000 Note7 devices and 30,000 batteries. Finally, the agency says it plans to enforce battery testing of mass produced units, not just prototype units that are tested before mass production.
These findings, which were independent of Samsung’s own investigation, finally put the entire saga surrounding this device to rest. The giant smartphone manufacturer lost a reported $5 billion thanks to the worldwide recall it was forced to perform.
Samsung is looking ahead though, anxiously promoting the upcoming launch of the Galaxy S8 flagship.
Source: Korea Times
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