Samsung recently said that before the year ends it will explain why the batteries of Galaxy Note 7 smartphones were exploding, as the company looks to remain transparent over the issue.
However, in advance of an official announcement from the company, an independent team of hardware engineers released a report that reveals the cause behind the exploding batteries of the Galaxy Note 7.
Aggressive Design At Fault For Galaxy Note 7 Explosions
In the report posted on the official blog of Instrumental, it was revealed that the team acquired a Galaxy Note 7 to analyze its components. As a safety precaution, they had a fire extinguisher nearby as they proceeded to tear down the smartphone.
The team discovered that, with the way that the battery of the Galaxy Note 7 is designed, two polymer layers drenched in electrolytes were used to separate a positive layer of lithium cobalt oxide and a negative layer of graphite. It is important that these two layers are kept separated, because if they meet an explosion would occur.
The problem is that, in a bid to make the Galaxy Note 7 as thin and small as possible, the internal components were all cramped inside small spaces, causing the battery to become continuously compressed. This pressure damages the polymer layers, which in turn leads to the positive and negative layers touching and exploding.
Samsung Knew About The Risk
Another fact that the Instrumental report pointed out is that Samsung knew that it was pushing boundaries in the way that it designed the battery of the Galaxy Note 7, but decided to go ahead with it. Tests should have spotted the danger of the device's battery design, but the company decided to break protocol and, instead of having a third-party company perform the tests on the battery, Samsung decided to do the procedures itself.
In addition, the report claimed that for Galaxy Note 7 units that did not have their batteries explode, the design of the component would eventually lead to massive swelling within the batteries.
"Samsung took a deliberate step toward danger ... They shipped a dangerous product," wrote Instrumental in its report.
Galaxy Note 7 Fiasco: The Aftermath
Samsung's operating profit in the third quarter of this year plunged by 30 percent to 5.2 trillion won, which is about $4.5 billion, because of the Galaxy Note 7 debacle. The company is now struggling to recover from the massive financial impact of the recall program that it launched for the smartphone.
In November, Samsung released full-page advertisements in major newspapers in the United States to apologize for the exploding Galaxy Note 7 smartphones, as the company looks to salvage what it can of its damaged brand. However, it seems that fans of Samsung's products remain fiercely loyal to the company, which should make it easier for Samsung to bounce back from the Galaxy Note 7 with its next flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S8.
