Now you have enjoyed (or endured) the five part series of Fred's career. Just in case you thought you were done there is one more aspect of my work here at Kyocera that I should share with you since it was such a major part of my life. That is the history of the exploding batteries. Before I start though, I just want to tell you that this morning I weighed in at 207.o pounds. I think I'm back on track. As I'm sure you have noticed, battery technology has grown tremendously over the last ten years. Remember the old NiCd batteries? Then came NiMH which had twice the energy and then cam
e the first Li-ion batteries that had twice the energy of the NiMH and then over the first few years after Li-ion came out their energy density more than doubled. Well that was the period when I joined the battery world. We put tremendous pressure on the battery companies to get more and more energy out of them. Try and imagine the energy from ten of the old NiCd batteries squeezed into a package half the size of one of them. That is the definition of a bomb. To get the size down many of the companies would cut corners and that is where the problem started. In order to use the highly reactive elements (like lithium) you can't use an aqueous electrolyte so you use a hydrocarbon. The problem is that hydrocarbons are fuels just like gasoline and Diesel so they burn quite nicely. Now imagine that you get a short circuit between your cathode and anode and you have a tremendous amount of current (as high as 50 amps) going through a very tiny conductor and you have temperature excursions over 1,000°C. White hot temperatures surrounded by a fuel is not a good combination especially when the cathode breaks down at those temperatures and gives off oxygen. Just about every major phone company and every major laptop company has now gone through a battery recall but Kyocera, unfortunately, had the honor of being the first. It was the worst year of my life. Kyocera took the approach that we would be very proactive, we volunteered for the recall (before the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) forced us to) and if we get any phone call from a customer that is very freaked out or threatening a law suit, the lawyer and I jump on a plane and fly out to their house to calm them down. You may remember CJ, that is him in the picture. It is such a creepy feeling to walk through someones house that has burned. Our approach has been very successful and because of this we have only had one law suit. I have seen it all, burned carpet, burned purses, burned bums, burned kitchen counters, burned cars, burned couches and burned houses. I supposed the most interesting was a woman who slept naked with her phone and yes, I had to check out the pictures of burned boobs. I have two words of advice for you, 1) don't sleep with your phone and 2) if your phone bursts into flames, throw it into the middle of your carpet. You can get a brand new carpet that way. I am now an expert on what can make a battery safe and believe me, it can't be done with the most popular chemistry. There are some new chemistries that aren't as powerful but they are much more stable. You will se
e them first in power tools and cars but I think most phone companies will eventually make the compromise and go to these chemistries as well. Once again, Kyocera is leading the way, we are doing it now and I'm sleeping better at nights.
Now you have enjoyed (or endured) the five part series of Fred's career. Just in case you thought you were done there is one more aspect of my work here at Kyocera that I should share with you since it was such a major part of my life. That is the history of the exploding batteries. Before I start though, I just want to tell you that this morning I weighed in at 207.o pounds. I think I'm back on track. As I'm sure you have noticed, battery technology has grown tremendously over the last ten years. Remember the old NiCd batteries? Then came NiMH which had twice the energy and then cam
e the first Li-ion batteries that had twice the energy of the NiMH and then over the first few years after Li-ion came out their energy density more than doubled. Well that was the period when I joined the battery world. We put tremendous pressure on the battery companies to get more and more energy out of them. Try and imagine the energy from ten of the old NiCd batteries squeezed into a package half the size of one of them. That is the definition of a bomb. To get the size down many of the companies would cut corners and that is where the problem started. In order to use the highly reactive elements (like lithium) you can't use an aqueous electrolyte so you use a hydrocarbon. The problem is that hydrocarbons are fuels just like gasoline and Diesel so they burn quite nicely. Now imagine that you get a short circuit between your cathode and anode and you have a tremendous amount of current (as high as 50 amps) going through a very tiny conductor and you have temperature excursions over 1,000°C. White hot temperatures surrounded by a fuel is not a good combination especially when the cathode breaks down at those temperatures and gives off oxygen. Just about every major phone company and every major laptop company has now gone through a battery recall but Kyocera, unfortunately, had the honor of being the first. It was the worst year of my life. Kyocera took the approach that we would be very proactive, we volunteered for the recall (before the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) forced us to) and if we get any phone call from a customer that is very freaked out or threatening a law suit, the lawyer and I jump on a plane and fly out to their house to calm them down. You may remember CJ, that is him in the picture. It is such a creepy feeling to walk through someones house that has burned. Our approach has been very successful and because of this we have only had one law suit. I have seen it all, burned carpet, burned purses, burned bums, burned kitchen counters, burned cars, burned couches and burned houses. I supposed the most interesting was a woman who slept naked with her phone and yes, I had to check out the pictures of burned boobs. I have two words of advice for you, 1) don't sleep with your phone and 2) if your phone bursts into flames, throw it into the middle of your carpet. You can get a brand new carpet that way. I am now an expert on what can make a battery safe and believe me, it can't be done with the most popular chemistry. There are some new chemistries that aren't as powerful but they are much more stable. You will se
e them first in power tools and cars but I think most phone companies will eventually make the compromise and go to these chemistries as well. Once again, Kyocera is leading the way, we are doing it now and I'm sleeping better at nights.
2 comments:
better you than me!!
Oh I was just thinkin' the same thing! Glad it's you and not me. : D
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