Join teardown site iFixit on a tour of a Chinese factory that makes batteries for Apple’s iPhone.
More often than not, batteries take the heat for the shortcomings of a consumer electronics product, whether it be having insufficient capacity to handle load demands to (sometime) outright failures due to thermal runaway and misuse. But this video on the site iFixit may prompt you to take a deep breath next time you want to pin blame on the battery.
The video, titled “Making an iPhone Battery Is Harder Than You Think,” was based on the narrator’s visit to a large factory in Huizhou, China that makes batteries for the iPhone. The narrator noted that many complex steps are needed to make lithium-polymer battery cells, with the help of highly specialized manufacturing equipment and strict quality control. Even after the cells are manufactured, the narrator said, they need to be programmed, through several intricate steps. The cells are then tested for impedance, capacity, and overcurrent as part of quality control procedures.
The narrator concluded that a lot more engineering goes into manufacturing batteries than one might think. You can view the video below.