Samsung has blamed two separate battery issues for causing the Galaxy Note 7 device to overheat and catch fire last year, a fault that led to the global recall of millions of devices.
At a press conference on Monday, Samsung officials said exhaustive tests on tens of thousands of devices and batteries had ruled out any problems with the device’s hardware or software.
Samsung said in a statement that Internal and independent investigations ‘concluded that batteries were found to be the cause of the Note 7 incidents’.
‘We sincerely apologise for the discomfort and concern we have caused to our customers,’ Koh Dong-Jin, the head of its mobile business, said bowing before hundreds of reporters and cameramen at a press conference in Seoul, Mail Online reports.
The first issue was that the battery components in the Galaxy Note 7 did not fit in the battery’s casing, causing the battery cell’s upper right corner to be crimped by the casing
The second round affected the devices sent to replace the original faulty phones.
These were caused by manufacturing issues, including poor welding at the battery manufacturer.
Samsung said that it had deployed around 700 researchers and engineers on its investigation, testing more than 200,000 fully-assembled devices and more than 30,000 batteries.
Kevin White, principal scientist at Exponent said that Battery A had a design issue that pushed down the right corner of the battery, while Battery B had defective internal welds.
Samsung acknowledged that it provided the specifications for the batteries, adding in its statement: ‘We have taken several corrective actions to ensure this never happens again. The lessons of the past several months are now deeply reflected in our processes and in our culture.’ This according to Mail Online
