Supplier that built the Note7's explosion-prone batteries catches on fire

Oh, the irony.
 By 
Raymond Wong
 on 
Original image replaced with Mashable logo
Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Sometimes the irony is just too much.

According to Bloomberg, a fire broke out at a factory in Tianjin, China, that may have manufactured the faulty batteries that led to Galaxy Note7 smartphones catching on fire worldwide last year.

A factory of Samsung SDI, a Samsung affiliate battery division that was responsible for the Note7's batteries, experienced a "minor" fire and a Samsung SDI spokesperson told Bloomberg it happened at a waste depository within the factory and had no affect on battery production. However, it still took 19 fire engines and 110 firemen to control the situation, according to the South China Morning Post.

The Note7 was recalled twice and permanently discontinued after replacement phones with "safe" batteries produced by another supplier, China's Amperex Technology Ltd, also started exploding.

Local firefighters told the SCMP "lithium-ion batteries and some semi-manufactured battery products" were amongst the materials that caught on fire.

After months of investigation, Samsung announced last month it finally knew what caused the Note7 to explode. The Korean electronics giant blamed the phone's explosions on two issues: batteries, made by Samsung SDI, that were slightly too big to fit into the Note7's slim body and manufacturing problems for batteries supplied by Amperex, related to "abnormal weld spots" and missing insulation tape that caused internal circuits to short circuit.

To reassure consumers and quell fears of future phone batteries exploding, Samsung will implement an 8-point battery safety check involving more extreme testing, X-ray inspection and more human reviews.

Topics Android Samsung

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Raymond Wong

Raymond Wong is Mashable's Senior Tech Correspondent. He reviews gadgets and tech toys and analyzes the tech industry. Raymond's also a bit of a camera geek, gamer, and fine chocolate lover. Before arriving at Mashable, he was the Deputy Editor of NBC Universal's tech publication DVICE. His writing has appeared on G4TV, BGR, Yahoo and Ubergizmo, to name a few. You can follow Raymond on Twitter @raywongy or Instagram @sourlemons.

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