Sony laptop battery recall continues with Lenovo
Lenovo bought the ThinkPad series from IBM last year
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Friday, 29, Sep 2006 09:22
Lenovo has become the latest laptop firm to recall batteries produced by Sony due to ongoing fears that faulty products could cause fires.
The Chinese-based company, the world's eighth-largest laptop manufacturer, said today it is recalling about half a million lithium-ion batteries from Sony.
The 526,000 laptops affected by the recall are from the ThinkPad series that Lenovo took over from IBM 18 months ago.
"Lenovo apologises for the inconvenience caused by this issue. Shipment of quality products always has been and continues to be the foremost concern," the firm said in a statement.
A succession of laptop-producing firms have already announced mass-recalls of Sony batteries, with Dell asking customers to return more than four million batteries, Apple 1.8 million and Toshiba 340,000.
Although Lenovo says only about ten per cent of laptops represent a potential fire risk, the recall was prompted when flames emerged from a laptop being used at Los Angeles airport earlier this week.
Yesterday Sony, which is footing the bill for the battery recall, announced plans for a global replacement programme for all affected batteries.
"As we have previously explained, on rare occasions, microscopic metal particles in the recalled battery cells may come into contact with other parts of the battery cell, leading to a possibility of short circuit within the cell," a statement said.
"Typically, a battery pack will simply power off when a cell short circuit occurs. However, under certain rare conditions an internal short circuit may lead to cell overheating and potentially flames," it added.
Sony's shares fell by about one per cent after Lenovo's announcement.
Lenovo laptops affected by battery recall
ThinkPad R Series (R51e, R52, R60, R60e)
ThinkPad T Series (T43, T43p, T60)
ThinkPad X Series (X60, X60s)