The South Korean tech giant disclosed in a report that the batteries did not properly fit in the phones and that design caused the initial round of fires, which were sometimes explosive and in certain cases led to property damage and personal injury for its owners.
The batteries in these phones were damaged at the battery cell’s upper-right corner. A second round of fires, which affected the devices sent to replace the original faulty phones, were caused by several manufacturing issues, including inadequate welding at the battery manufacturer the company raced to produce those new phones.
The report was compiled by Samsung and third-party researchers it hired to work on the investigation. The issues disclosed Sunday ultimately led the company to issue two recalls for its flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphone, and ultimately to stop making the device altogether. Samsung recalled approximately 2.5 million phones in total.
In a statement, Samsung said, “We have taken several corrective actions to ensure this never happens again, including the implementation of a multi-layer safety measures protocol at the product planning stage, and an 8-Point Battery Safety Check.”
