A few weeks ago we were greeted by the news that Dell Computers was going to recall thousands of laptop batteries manufactured by Sony because it had a tendency to catch fire. This was also followed by Apple�s announcement that it will also issue its own recall of almost 1.8 million batteries for very similar reasons.
This week it is the turn of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd to issue a recall of 6000 PC batteries because it allegedly could overheat when subjected to strong impacts. The company though as refused to identify which company was the supplier of the batteries but hinted that neither Panasonic nor Sony made the said batteries.
According to the spokesman of Matsushita, there has been no reported case of the batteries in their machines catching fire or injuring anyone. At this point there is still no figures released that would show how much this recall is going to cost the company.
Based on estimates made by Sony, the battery recalls effected by both Dell and Apple will cost the company from between 20 billion yen to 30 billion yen or $172 million to $259 million.
The spokesman from Matsushita further explained that when the notebook PC using the battery was accidentally dropped on the floor or if it went through any other type of strong impact it becomes very likely that a tiny metal spring that is used in the battery pack could fall off on to one of the battery cells, which would cause the battery to overheat.