Japan: Excess voltage in Boeing 787 battery
Members of the Japan Transport Safety Board hold a main battery removed from an All Nippon Airways Boeing 787, at Takamatsu Airport in Kagawa Prefecture, Jan. 17, 2013. The Dreamliner had made an emergency landing the previous day. / Yomiuri Shimbun via AP Images
TOKYO The burned insides of a battery in the Boeing 787 at the center of a worldwide grounding of the aircraft indicate it operated at a voltage above its design limit, a Japanese investigator said Friday, as U.S. officials joined Japan's probe into the incident.
The All Nippon Airways plane made an emergency landing Wednesday morning in western Japan after its pilots smelled something burning and received a cockpit warning of battery problems. Nearly all 50 of the 787s in use around the world have since been grounded.
This photo provided by the Japan Transport Safety Board shows the distorted main lithium-ion battery of the All Nippon Airways' Boeing 787 which made an emergency landing on Jan. 16, 2013 at Takamatsu airport in Takamatsu, Japan.
/ AP PhotoPhotos provided by the Japan Transport Safety Board of the lithium ion battery that was located beneath the 787's cockpit show a blackened mass of wires and other components within a distorted blue casing.
Japan transport ministry investigator Hideyo Kosugi said the state of the battery indicated "voltage exceeding the design limit was applied" to it.
He said the similarity of the burned insides of the battery from the ANA flight to the battery in a Japan Airlines 787 that caught fire Jan. 7 while the jet was parked at Boston's Logan International Airport suggested a common cause.
"If we compare data from the latest case here and that in the U.S., we can pretty much figure out what happened," Kosugi said.
The 787 relies more than any other modern airliner on electrical signals to help power nearly everything the plane does. It's also the first Boeing plane to use rechargeable lithium-ion batteries for its main electrical system. Such batteries are prone to overheating and have additional safeguards installed that are meant to control the problem and prevent fires.
GS Yuasa Corp., the maker of the lithium-ion batteries used in the 787s, said Thursday it was helping with the investigation but that the cause of the problem was unclear. It said the problem could be the battery, the power source or the electronics system.
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U.S. safety officials and Boeing inspectors joined the Japan Transport Safety Board investigation Friday.
The American investigators — one each from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board and two from Boeing Co. — inspected the ANA jet on the tarmac at Takamatsu airport in western Japan.
Boeing's Dreamliner
Boeing's 787 Dreamliner grounded
An initial inspection by Japanese officials of the 787 found that a flammable battery fluid known as electrolyte had leaked from the plane's main lithium-ion battery beneath the cockpit. It also found burn marks around the battery.
Aviation authorities in Japan have directed ANA, which owns 17 of the planes, and Japan Airlines, with seven, not to fly the jets until questions over their safety have been resolved.
The 787, known as the Dreamliner, is Boeing's newest jet, and the company is counting heavily on its success. Since its launch after delays of more than three years, the plane has been plagued by a series of problems.
The FAA has required U.S. carriers to stop flying 787s until the batteries are demonstrated to be safe. United Airlines has six of the jets and is the only U.S. carrier flying the model.
Aviation authorities in other countries usually follow the lead of the country where the manufacturer is based.
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the energy usage was underestimated; and instead of a new design being implemented by adding more batteries or reducing load the system was altered by a "factory floor fix" that re routed current from the original design causing an overload, instead of reducing load or increasing the amount of batteries
We do not yet know the truth. But more likely than not, it is a design issue. As specified in this article, "voltage exceeding the design limit was applied". This infers that the battery itself is good. But the design of other related components may be flawed.
Lets not forget this fact. Building an aircraft is an unbelievably difficult task. It is not uncommon that the most rigorous testing cannot find all the glitches in the design. I am sure Boeing will have it fixed.
We need to Outsource the Entire Manufacturing of the 787 to China. Americans have no manufacturing skills after billions and billions export of manufacturing and professional jobs over the last 3 decades.
Comments like the one above clearly show the ignorance and complacency of the average web troll.