The release of new items took place in August Galaxy Note 7 of the Samsung brand. At the same time, the company proudly announced that 45 thousand pre-orders from Europe had already been made for the new flagship model. As recently as October 11, the company completely stopped production of the phablet - the phone lasted no more than two months on the market.

In a hurry, you will make people laugh

In its constant race with Apple for more-thinner-more powerful, the South Korean giant samsung did not deserve to check new smartphone for explosion hazard. And who cares about such trifles when a competitor is going to release a new smartphone with a numbering greater than that of the latest Samsung flagship. Iphone 7 made the developers get nervous and abandon the production of the sixth Galaxy Note, throwing all their energy into the development of the seventh flagship Galaxy series Note.

Explosive consequences

The first explosions followed in the first week of the phablet's sales. On August 24, an explosion occurred in China while charging the device. Fortunately, no fire broke out, and the owner escaped with a slight fright.

The second recorded case was less successful - the device exploded right in the car, causing the car to catch fire. There were also cases of fires on board aircraft, after which many airlines began to require their passengers to completely turn off their smartphones. Galaxy models Note 7.

In the first two weeks after the sale of the flagship, there were about 50 cases of fire caused by the explosion of the device.

On September 2, the company officially began recalling its new product to make additional changes to the device. At the same time, Samsung began to replace defective smartphones with the same model.

But it was strange to expect different behavior from an identical device - smartphones with tenacity of kamikaze continued to undermine the company's reputation.

On October 11, Samsung completely ceased production of the Galaxy Note 7.

Who's guilty?

To understand the cause of the explosions, you need to understand the device of the smartphone itself, namely, the device of the lithium-ion type batteries, since they were the ones that exploded.

Batteries of this type have special controllers that save the battery from overcharging, or from being completely discharged, since both of these factors can destroy the battery. Most Samsung smartphones also have a quick charge function, which was achieved by increasing the voltage, not the amperage.

The Galaxy Note 7 smartphones for some reason did not have the same controllers, as the new smaller battery design influenced the convergence of the positive and negative electrodes.

The following happened: the phone was completely discharged (which already had a detrimental effect on the battery itself), and then a shock dose received a charging current (accelerated charging). As a result, overheating occurred, the pressure in the battery case increased, which led to an explosion.

Warning: Pocket Threat!

Since lithium burns at a temperature of 1336 degrees Celsius (a chemist's handbook), you can imagine what such an explosion could turn a room and a person standing next to. But it should be noted that earlier similar explosions (of course, in smaller numbers) occurred with devices from other companies.

It is necessary to consider not only the convenience, but also the danger of lithium batteries, the controllers of which can "fail" at any time. That is why technology manufacturers advise to charge phones and laptops only in person, in order to exclude the possibility of a fire in a room due to spontaneous combustion, and never charge devices while sleeping.

Loss of reputation

After the announcement of the termination of production of the Galaxy Note 7, Samsung shares fell 8%, and on October 12, fell another 3%. During these two days, the company lost about $ 20 billion.

Chasing after competitors, the company was unable to make its device secure. Comical, but in the press release of the new flagship, in addition to improving the display graphics and other pleasant bonuses, it was said about the increased security of the smartphone. Loss of customer confidence will lead to irreversible consequences for the company. And already the leaders of Samsung are not worried about the race for leadership with Apple or Google, but about the return of the previous position and the stopping of the share falls.

Today Aeroflot recommended its passengers not to use new Samsung phones - Galaxy Note Seven phablets. Phones cannot be taken on board and checked in baggage. The reason is the spontaneous combustion of the model. The phone's battery caught fire when charging due to an error during production, according to various sources, from 30 to 70 such cases have already been recorded, and the company was forced to recall the entire batch. At the same time, Samsung held the presentation of the exploding model a month earlier than usual. Analysts explained this by the desire to release the phone before Apple's presentation and set new standards for the industry. What came of this, in the column "Rain".

Aeroflot - following S7, reacted to the marriage in new Samsung phones. In August, after the start of sales of the new model of the Korean company, reports began to appear that phones were exploding in their hands. The company named the defect in the batteries as the reason for the fire of the phablets. Soon, airlines from the United States, Australia, Asian countries, and European Air France and KLM banned passengers from taking Galaxy on board and checking in their luggage. Russian "Aeroflot" issued such a message a day before the planned start of sales of phones in Russia. Now, as explained by a Samsung spokesman, the Galaxy Note7 release has been pushed back to a later fall. The exact date is not yet known, but these will already be phones from the batches of the new production, Samsung explained to Rain.

Since the beginning of the scandal, the company has lost $ 22 billion in capitalization, its shares have fallen in price by 11%.
There is an instructive moment in this story. Samsung held the presentation of the problematic phone not in September, as usual, but in early August. Analysts explained this by the desire to present the new model before Apple does, in order to consolidate the status of the leader in its generation for the model.

The pursuit of battery capacity (it was the power of the processor and its battery that the company set) was the reason that Samsung did not conduct enough tests and launched a crude product on the market, according to Bloomberg analyst Reed Stevenson. Apple and Samsung have been fighting in the magistrates' courts since 2011. Through lawsuits totaling several billion dollars, companies are trying to prove who issued new function or changed the design of the model. The rivalry escalated after Samsung began releasing expensive phones, while Apple, on the contrary, launched budget models.

This summer everyone was waiting for the release of the company's two flagship models. Striving to outstrip its competitors by one month, Samsung lost this rivalry miserably. Introducing new phone, which, according to the plan of the manufacturers, in everything should have been better iPhone Samsung is now in the business of making excuses, maintaining its image and finding new suppliers.

In a situation where so much attention is paid to the war between the two companies, even 70 out of several million phones on fire can cause image damage, from which Samsung will not recover immediately. And although the president of the company justifies that the defect was "too small to notice", users and experts have already decided that Samsung simply overloaded the new model and did not conduct enough tests, trying to overtake Apple in everything.

Apple itself, the main competitor of the Korean company, did not speculate on Samsung problems limiting ourselves to a meaningful statement that their batteries meet all safety standards.

In early September, users of the new flagship Samsung smartphone The Galaxy Note 7 began to complain massively about phone battery explosions. Samsung has suspended production and is promising a replacement for all buyers. Xaomi smartphones also exploded: the owners were burned.

"Paper" talked to the candidate technical sciences and a leading researcher at the Polytechnic University Maxim Maximov, who is working on the creation of lithium-ion batteries, about why smartphone batteries still explode in 2016, and how owners should not be harmed by their own technology.

35 cases of explosion became known in two weeks Samsung Galaxy Note 7. As a result of such incidents, a car has already burned down, and a six-year-old child has received burns. According to preliminary data from the company, the explosion was caused by a manufacturing defect in the battery. Several airlines, including Aeroflot, allow Galaxy Note 7 owners to use devices on board.

Why do lithium-ion batteries explode?

The explosion hazard of a battery depends on various factors, in particular on the materials used by the manufacturing companies. Today there is a wide range of battery materials that differ in both technical specifications and for the price. Manufacturers decide for themselves which ones are optimal for them.

The explosion problem is relevant because the materials may not have been fully qualified to existing standards. As a result, during overloads, processes occur that contribute to the release of energy and gases in batteries, that is, in a confined space, after which an explosion occurs.

One of the main reasons a battery explodes is overcharging. To avoid this, special chips (controllers) are placed on them, which allow you to charge the phone only to a certain voltage: the battery is disconnected from charging, even if the smartphone is still connected to the network. If the electronics fail, the chances of overcharging are high.

Depressurization of batteries can also be one of the causes of fire.

Maxim Maximov, candidate of technical sciences:

In existing cases, it is necessary to look at how and under what circumstances the phones exploded. Perhaps the reason is not even the battery, but microelectronics. For example, the charge-discharge voltage is incorrectly regulated. In such cases, overcharging may occur.

They wrote about my phone model that it explodes. What should I do?

Such a phone must be disposed of, preferably in a specially designated place: batteries contain heavy metals such as cobalt and others that are harmful to the environment.

How do I check if my phone can explode?

Checking the phone in a domestic environment is hardly possible. But if your phone battery is overheating, that's always a bad thing. If during the execution of some processes, for example, playing on the phone, the battery heats up so that you cannot touch it and the temperature reaches 30-40 degrees, you need to contact a specialist.

You can also leave the smartphone to charge for a day and see if it heats up or not. When the battery warms up, it quickly loses its charge, so if the phone starts to drain faster, this also means that the battery is aging and needs to be replaced. In addition, with dangerous heating, the external state of the battery changes: if the smartphone has "swelling" (your flat smartphone has ceased to be), you need to pay attention to this.

Could the explosion of smartphones be caused by the attempts of manufacturers to increase the capacity of batteries?

Performance is increased by installing more powerful processors... If the power consumption processes are not optimized correctly, the processor needs more power. At high rates of energy release, it heats up. That is, heating can be associated with increased productivity. And uncontrolled heating can really lead to a fire and even an explosion.

What can I do to reduce battery overheating?

Handling recommendations are standard: fully charge and fully discharge once a week or once a month. And use a smartphone in the range of 30-80% of its capacity. Unfortunately, there are no absolute rules that can help determine whether your phone will explode or not.

The more devices with lithium-ion batteries go on sale, the more often there are reports of exploding smartphones or catching charging ports on the web. This problem became urgent again after Samsung reported in connection with reports and complaints about problems with an exploding battery. Why this happens - read in our article.

First of all, it should be noted that the chance of explosion or ignition of a battery in an electronic device is extremely small, except for those cases when serious mistakes have been made in the design of the device or the battery itself. Even on the rare occasion that this happens, the battery itself is often not the main issue. Also note that in the article it comes mostly only about the dangers of lithium-ion batteries.

Causes of explosion or fire

In total, there are two main reasons why a device's battery can explode or catch fire. One of them - deformation resulting from a fall or deliberate injury... For example, if you hit your smartphone hard in the area where the battery is located, the walls of the battery are more likely to be broken. This leads to leakage of the insides and subsequently to a short circuit and possibly an explosion. Often, you could see this during funny crash tests, where the video is recorded as a person mocking everyone's smartphone. possible ways and in the end he just bangs him with a hammer.

GIF animation - what happens if you hit the battery with a hammer

With a simple fall from a height of human growth, such an outcome is unlikely - the impact force is too small. But if you drop the device from a height of several floors, then the battery will most likely catch fire or explode.

Now is the time when the phones of little-known Chinese manufacturers are most popular. This is another battery problem. Small companies don't buy quality batteries from Samsung or LG as they are too expensive. To achieve a low cost, the Chinese have to purchase batteries not very High Quality ... Often, such batteries do not have a so-called fuse that turns off charging if the voltage is too high. Or in such batteries, due to manufacturing defects, microscopic metal elements are found. They react with the contents of the battery, causing a short circuit.

At least 35 cases of battery explosion on Galaxy Note 7 have been recorded

The third and most frequent problem - generating too much heat when charging... Since smartphone manufacturers constantly want to reduce charging times, they have to install controllers that supply large quantity current into the battery. Of course, this has the side effect of generating extra heat. The temperature rises not only in the battery itself, but also in the controller, which is located next to the battery. Overheating has the effect that a certain area of ​​the battery cannot cool quickly. As a result, a reaction is formed there, when heat accumulates until an explosion or fire occurs.

Subject to all standards, fast charging with the release of a large amount of heat will not lead to any serious consequences. However, in the case of the Galaxy Note 7, these are explosions and fires. Samsung has already admitted that these smartphones have different batches of batteries. Apparently, one of them was produced with defects, which leads to problems.

Not original charging and adapters- the second reason for overheating when charging. In the case of the Galaxy Note 7, according to the official data, the explosions are caused by defective batteries, then even a good battery can fail when using non-original chargers and adapters.

How to avoid battery problems

To prevent your smartphone from melting when charging, you need to follow simple rules:

• Use only the original charger, including the unit and cable if separated. If the charging "plug" does not fit (Chinese or British), then it is better to buy an adapter, and not another charger.
• Use only original batteries. If your device is old enough and you decide to replace the battery in it, then buy only original ones. Alternative offers may be cheaper, but then they will cost you more.
• It is not necessary to fully charge the battery - 50% is enough if that's enough for you. Lithium-ion batteries do not have a so-called memory, so they can be charged frequently and not fully. But you need to charge with a suitable device, as lithium-ion batteries are vulnerable to low voltages.
• Do not use the device while charging and do not leave the device in a hot place. Playing or browsing while charging is not a good idea as it already raises the temperature inside the case. Also, do not leave your smartphone charging in a hot place.

The Korean company Samsung has epic disgraced with the new flagship smartphone Galaxy Note 7: all the efforts of the developers, it seems, were thrown into giving up the name Note 6 (this is the sixth generation), and draw a seven so that the figure is no less than the expected 7 September iPhone 7. But to design a smartphone so that it does not explode during charging did not work.

History of the problem

The story developed rapidly. In August, in those countries where the Note 7 went on sale earlier than others, 35 smartphones exploded.

On August 30, the company stopped accepting pre-orders for the Note 7, explaining this by high demand, but accidentally missed the numbers. The fact is that at first Samsung cheerfully reported about 7,500 Russian pre-orders in the first week, and three weeks later - about 9,000, that is, five times less were ordered in two weeks. In other countries, pre-orders have also been suspended.

On September 1, it became known about the termination of sales of Note 7 in 10 countries and there were rumors about a large-scale recall campaign: almost all the sold devices will be replaced.

On September 2, Samsung officially announced the recall of all smartphones sold. Anyone who ordered a prepaid device (in Russia there are about 900 people) can return the funds in full.

Why do batteries explode?

All this time, through a number of media outlets, information was launched that smartphones explode only when using an unoriginal charger or an unoriginal cable - this, however, is talk in favor of the poor, because a native device with a cable usually lies at home, but in the car, at work and friends use whatever. And then, what does "unoriginal" mean? Samsung itself does not produce chargers and cables, but orders them from outside. If, say, not Samsung, but Sony is written on a cable or charger manufactured at the same factory, is it immediately counterfeit? In fact, for this, manufacturers at one time agreed to use a standard USB connector so that the charging was universal.

Moreover, they are all standard: normal charging produces a voltage of 5V and a current of up to 2A. The current strength at a specific time is determined by the charge controller included in the smartphone's chipset. Moreover, a lithium-ion battery usually has its own controller, which protects the "bank" itself, firstly, from overcharging, and secondly, from deep discharge - both are detrimental to the lithium-ion battery. Fast charging uses increased voltage (9 V, 2 A or 9 V, 1.67 A or in some cases 12 V). It is the voltage that is raised, not the current (otherwise a much thicker wire will be required). At the same time, in order not to burn with fast charging regular phone, the exchange of data between the charger itself and the phone is used: it, roughly speaking, sends a request: "Do you support fast charging? ", - and if the answer is" yes ", then it turns on the increased voltage, and the controller is already charging the battery with a high current.

In the case of the Note 7, for some reason, the charging controller in the smartphone first failed, after which too much charging current was supplied to the battery. At the same time, in the exploded batteries (all cases of explosions are associated with devices from early batches), as they say, there was no built-in controller. Charging with too much current leads to overheating of the battery, which turns on a chain reaction: the electrolyte boils with the release of a large amount of gas, the pressure inside the sealed battery case increases several times in a fraction of a second, after which the case explodes and hot gases under pressure burst outward, and parts of the structure batteries or the phone itself are transformed into destructive elements - this is a kind of high-explosive fragmentation bomb.

What is the danger of a battery explosion

Explosion lithium battery extremely dangerous. Firstly, lithium burns with a temperature of 1339 degrees - this is enough to even burn through concrete, while during an explosion, fiery drops can be sprayed in different directions, which leads to serious fires and burns.

Secondly, an explosion can occur while talking on the phone: in this case, serious injuries and death are possible. For example, in 2007, a Chinese man had fragments of an exploded Motorola phone pierced the heart, and in the same year, an exploded LG phone tore his lungs and broke the spine of a Korean, which also led to the death of the victim. There are also known cases of death from rupture of the cervical artery, irreparable loss of limbs, etc.

How to protect against a phone explosion

Explosions of lithium batteries are the flip side of technological progress; abandoning them is like giving up planes, because they sometimes crash, and traveling to Vladivostok from Moscow by train.

Nevertheless, the risk of injury from an explosion will be much lower if you carry a smartphone in a bag, talk on it through wireless headset, and display important messages on a smart watch. Headsets and watches, however, also have lithium batteries, but 10-20 times smaller than smartphones. Therefore, even if something happens to them, the consequences will not be fatal.