Computer manufacturer Dell has announced plans to recall and replace over 4 million lithium-ion laptop batteries over concerns that they may burst into flames when overheated.
The company, based in Texas, US, said on Monday that the recall had been arranged in cooperation with the US Consumer Product Safety Division. The CPSD says six 鈥渋ncidents鈥 involving the batteries have been reported, although no one has been hurt.
A Dell laptop caught fire at a conference held in Japan in June. were posted on several online news sites shortly afterwards.
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The batteries targeted for recall were manufactured for Dell by Japanese company Sony and are designed for use with Dell Latitude and Inspiron notebooks and Precision mobile workstations. Most were sold between 1 April 2004 and 18 July 2006. The batteries are imprinted with the Dell company name and either 鈥淢ade in Japan鈥, 鈥淢ade in China鈥, or 鈥淏attery Cell Made in Japan Assembled in China鈥.
Abundance of caution
Dell has posted information about the recall website , which provides more details of the batteries involved. The company also advises computer owners to remove the batteries from their computer and operate their machine鈥檚 using only mains power until a replacement battery arrives.
Company founder and board chairman Michael Dell explained the decision at a press conference held in Singapore on Tuesday: 鈥淭he biggest thing we can do is to ensure the safety of our customers, and we are taking an abundance of caution here with a broad recall to ensure that customers have the best conditions possible.鈥
鈥淲e know that these contaminated battery cells have an extremely small possibility of failure, but we鈥檝e taken what we think is an abundance of caution,鈥 Dell added
Chemical reaction
Dell said the cause of the malfunctions was still being investigated: 鈥淲e have been working very closely with Sony to understand what occurred in the process during the period of contamination and also to understand what counter-measures they have taken.鈥
Overheating lithium-ion batteries can cause a chemical reaction that sometimes leads to a fire. However, most batteries include mechanism designed to shut a computer down in case of overheating.
Regarding lithium-ion batteries in general, the CPSD says 300 incidents of overheating and catching fire have occurred between 2003 and 2005 in the US, across a variety of devices. On 7 February 2006 batteries being transported aboard a UPS plane apparently overheated and caught fire.
