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MARCH 2017
|
THINK
Lithium
Batteries
How To Keep From
Getting “Burned”
by
Leeton Lee
S
amsung Electronics Co.
announced in January that it
had completed its investigation of
explosive lithium-ion batteries that
led it to recall nearly threemillion
Galaxy Note 7 smartphones,
resulting in a $5 billion problem
for the company. Samsung
reportedly devotedmore than
700 staffmembers to investigate
why the battery packs overheated,
caught fire or exploded. After
months of investigation and tests
of nearly 200,000 phones and
30,000 batteries, Samsung blamed
the overheating batteries on
two causes:
1
A bad design of one
version of batteries made
by Samsung’s own factory
caused them to short-circuit
and overheat (i.e., too much
battery crammed into too
tight of a space); and
2
A lack of adequate quality
control processes during
the production of other
batteries (made by a di erent
factory), and exacerbated
by Samsung’s rushed
production which caused a
di erent batch of defects.
Why is Samsung’s Note 7
fiasco relevant to the
promotional products industry?
The answer is simple. As an
industry, we supply and distribute
millions of lithium-ion battery-
powered products (e.g., power
banks, Bluetooth speakers,
wireless earbuds and other tech
products) each year that end up
in consumers’ hands, in their
pockets or in their ears. These
tech products are some of the
most popular promotional items
for end buyers to market their
valuable brands. Therefore, we
need to ensure, and assure our
clients, that our power banks
and other tech products are
safely designed, made, tested
and certified to prevent injuries,
property damage and costly
(and reputation-damaging)
safety recalls.
How do we protect ourselves
when sourcing power
banks and similar items?
Buy only tested and certified
products.
Rachel Koenig,
president of supplier AP
Specialties (PPAI 230356), a
leading supplier of power banks
and other tech products, believes
that “buying only products that
have been properly tested and
certified by a recognized lab such
as UL is one way to safely source
these items. We learned the hard
way a few years ago when we
had a power bank recall of our
own. We decided, as painful and
difficult as it was, to conduct the