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Construction needs cloud flexibility
Australia’s embattled construction sector could benefit from cloud based information systems that can be switched on and off in lockstep with individual projects – with the exception of those organisations based in remote areas like the Kimberleys.
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Lithium Ion batteries under scrutiny after Dell, Apple recalls
Stan Beer
Saturday, 09 September 2006 15:03
Not only is Sony going to lose hundreds of millions of dollars paying for more than 6 million replacement batteries but the damge to the company's prestige has been enormous.
Korean Air has actually banned the use of all Dell notebooks and Apple iBook and Powerbook laptops in-flight, unless their batteries are removed. So it would probably be fair to assume that Sony is probably not one Dell and Apple's favourite battery suppliers right now.
The problem of course has been with the Lithium Ion battery technology used in the Sony battery packs, which under certain circumstances can overheat dangerously in a process called thermal runaway.
Basically, what happens is that if Lithium Ion batteries are overcharged or get shorted by a manufacturing fault (as was the case with the Dell and Apple recalls), the cobalt oxide in the battery electrode becomes unstable and can lead to the batteries to overheat and sometimes explode.
Some manufacturers of newer generation Lithoum Ion batteries have overcome this problem, sacrificing some of the phenomenal power storage capabilities for safety, by using iron phosphate at the electrode instead of cobalt oxide. However, manufacturers such as Sony persist with the cobalt oxide chemistry because of the superior storage and power capabilities, insisting that the batteries are safe.
The problem for Sony, which is a leading supplier of Lithium Ion batteries globally, is that the world is waiting to see if the batch of 6 million batteries it supplied to Dell and Apple is a one-off manufacturing glitch. Or are there millions of other phones, cameras and notebooks in the marketplace with the potential to give their owners a nasty surprise.
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