Panasonic goes mass-market with less flammable batteries

Angus Kidman
Wednesday, 20 December 2006 03:52

Your IT - Home IT

Hoping to not repeat the mistakes of 2006, the year of the burning notebook PC, Panasonic's Matsushita division is preparing for mass production of new battery technology that's less likely to inspire a product recall.

Matsushita has developed an enhancement to lithium ion batteries, the heat resistance layer (HRL). As the name implies, the HRL reduces the risk of a battery catching fire, replacing the polyolefin separator used in most current batteries with a more efficient insulating material.

As a result, even if there is a short-circuit, the battery itself will not overheat, Matsushita claims. The first versions of HRL-enabled product went on sale in April 2006, and mass production is now set to begin, the company said in a statement.

While Matsushita managed to avoid the mass recalls associated with Sony's batteries, which saw more than 4 million batteries shipped by Dell and nearly 2 million shipped by Apple recalled, it wasn't immune from the overheated battery frenzy.

In September, 6,000 batteries used in Panasonic-branded computers in Japan were recalled amidst overheating concerns.