In conjugation with theUnited States Consumer Product Safety Commission(CPSC ) , Dell and Apple Computer announced big recall of laptop batteries in the summertime of 2006 , followed by Toshiba and Lenovo . Sony manufactured all of the retrieve assault and battery , and in October 2006 , the fellowship declare its own with child - scale recall . Under the veracious portion , these batteries could overheat , potentially do burns , an burst or a fire .

To empathise why that happened , it ’s helpful to know a little bit about how batteries process . Batteries have a negatively charged terminal and a positively lodge pole . In a battery , energy from electrochemical reactions causeselectrons(negatively consign corpuscle ) to collect at the bombardment ’s negatively charged pole . level particles are appeal to opposite charge , so if you connect a shelling to a lap , the electrons will hang from the negative perch , through the circuit and to the battery ’s positively charged perch . In other Word of God , the battery generates a strike charge , or electricity . ( See How Electricity turn andHow Batteries Workfor more details ) .

The exact reaction that mother the negatron varies , calculate on the eccentric of stamp battery . In alithium - ionbattery , you ’ll ascertain pressurized container that house a whorl of metal and a inflammable , lithium - contain liquid state . The manufacture process creates tiny pieces of metallic element that float in the liquid . Manufacturers ca n’t completely prevent these metal fragment , but good manufacture techniques limit their sizing and number . The cells of a Li - ion battery also containseparatorsthat keep theanodesandcathodes , or positive and minus terminal , from touching each other .

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If the assault and battery gets blistering through employment or recharging , the part of metal can move around , much like grains of rice in a pot of water . If a slice of metal gets too airless to the separator , it can deflate the separator and cause a short circuit . There are a few potential scenario for what can go wrongly in the case of a short racing circuit :

­ There are several reasons why­ multiple laptop computer battery models have been recalled in the retiring few years . People need small , lightweight laptop that they can employ for long time period . They also want their laptops to have bright screens and lots of processing magnate . For these reasons , laptop batteries have to be relatively minuscule , but they also have to hold a lot of vigour and last a long clip .

­ Making lithium - ion batteries that can reserve more top executive for a longer period requires full of life components , including the separators , to be small and sparse . The reduction in size makes it more probable that the batteries can flunk , break , leak or little circuit .

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Check out the next Sir Frederick Handley Page for more information­ , including how to influence if the recall impact your laptop .

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