[Fricken]

>In February, a misprogrammed robot that handles battery modules repeatedly punctured through the plastic housing (called a clamshell) and into some battery cells, the employee said, adding that instead of scrapping all the modules, some were fixed with adhesive and put back on the manufacturing line. According to internal documents Business Insider reviewed, this foible affected more than 1,000 pieces.

http://www.businessinsider.com/tesla-model-3-scrap-waste-hig...

[ebikelaw]

You can kinda make that sound bad, and it might have been bad, but reworking pieces is standard practice in many industries. "Fixed with adhesive" sounds like a hack but there are many wonderful adhesives.

[mrguyorama]

A punctured lithium cell is not a minor defect

[ebikelaw]

You're right but without more information we shouldn't really take what's printed in the newspaper at face value. Was it really a punctured _cell_ as you and I understand it, or was it a punctured _assembly_? A battery pack has a lot of sheet metal and supporting materials etc.

[rasz]

Tesla doesnt use plastic Lithium cells, they use standard 18650 and 2170 metal ones.

>plastic housing (called a clamshell)

is an external insulating case for the whole battery pack, there is metal case inside it, and another one on top of it.

[mrguyorama]

>punctured through the plastic housing (called a clamshell) and into some battery cells

Emphasis mine. I interpreted that as also popping some of the individual cells. If you replaced the individual cells that were breached you could probably be okay, but at the same time, look at how minor the defect was that was causing Samsung phones to catch fire

[rasz]

Cellphone batteries are soft plastic pouches.