A group of laptop vendors and battery manufacturers plans to announce a standard for making safer lithium ion batteries by June 15, 2007, in an attempt to recover from a massive series of battery recalls in recent months.
The new standard will cover "process requirements, quality control and assurance" for all forms of rechargeable lithium ion battery cells, from prismatic to cylindrical and pouch, according to the Association Connecting Electronics Industries, known as IPC.
At an October 12 meeting at IPC offices in Bannockburn, Illinois, the group also voted to name Lenovo executive Anthony Corkell as chairman of this IPC Lithium Ion Battery Subcommittee. Corkell, Lenovo's executive director of standards and quality engineering, will report to a larger IPC standards board run by John Grosso, Dell's director of supplier engineering and quality.
The group did not list specific changes it was requiring, and Corkell did not respond to requests for comment. But lithium ion technology is already well established, so the new standard will probably focus on process controls and quality assurance, says IPC spokesperson Kimberly Sterling.
Background
The group first convened in September, after batteries made by Sony Energy Devices short-circuited and caught fire. In August PC vendors including Dell and Lenovo had worked with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission to recall about 8 million batteries and to offer free replacements.
Other vendors involved in the recall include Apple Computer, Fujitsu, IBM, and Toshiba, but it is unclear whether any of those companies participated in the meeting. Even the battery manufacturer itself--Sony--may not have attended, raising questions about who would actually follow the new standard when it is published.
IPC declined to provide a roll of attendees. "All I can tell you is that the major laptop manufacturers were well represented," Sterling says.
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