About 3 months after Samsung Electronics halted production and shipments of fire-prone Galaxy Note 7 smart phones, the world’s largest mobile phone maker today announced that the fire outbreak of the Galaxy note 7 smart phones turned out to have nothing do with the phone system itself, pointing its fingers to two Li-ion battery suppliers –Samsung SDI and ATL, or Amperex Technology Limited of China.

Citing as evidences what the company described as objective inspection results by three independent foreign quality inspection organizations – UL, Exponents, and TUV Rheinland –  Ko Dong Jin, president with Samsung said at a press conference that no parts and components other than Li-ion battery cells were blamed for the outbreak of the fire.

Nor was it system design scheme found to do nothing to set fire to the Galaxy note 7.

According to inspection results by the three organizations, the secondary battery systems were found to go wrong with anode plates and separators.

Sajeev Jesudas, president of consumer business at UL, said, “The problem with the battery A (from Samsung SDI) was that there was a deformity on the upper-right corner, which caused the anode electrodes inside the battery to bend and then combust. For battery B (from ATL), combination of missing insulator tape and misaligned insulator tape, sharp edge protrusions in the welding joints which caused damage to the positive tab in the battery, and thin separator eventually combine   resulted in a short circuit between the positive tab and the copper of the negative electrode and became cause of the fire. “

Kevin White of Exponent also explained that the agency found no flaw in the hardware or software of the smartphone. The agency said that the bendiness on the battery itself was so large that being too large for the cell pouch designed to accommodate the electrode assembly.

He said “Battery A had unintended damage to electrode winding caused by faulty pouch design which lead to fires. Battery B showed no such design flaw but that poor welding of separators seem to be the cause of the fires.”

TUV Rheinland, which investigated the assembly lines and logistics of the Galaxy Note 7 smartphone from Korea to Vietnam, and China which are Samsung's main supply chain, said “We had not found any cause of damage that might cause fire in the investigated processes and work stations.”

Samsung said that the company has assigned about 700 engineers to test 200,000 Galaxy note 7 smart phones.

Yet, Samsung’s findings will remain controversial until third party, independent government-sponsored authorities like CPSC, consumer product safety commission come up with more objective test results.