Acer, the fast-growing Taiwanese PC maker, announced on Wednesday a voluntary recall of 27,000 lithium-ion notebook batteries made by Sony. A danger exists that the batteries can short-circuit and burst into flames.

Millions of notebook batteries produced by Sony have been recalled since last year. Acer was one of the few major companies not impacted by the battery recall to date. Apple, Dell, Lenovo and Toshiba have all had to recall batteries.

The Acer TravelMate notebooks containing the batteries subject to the recall were sold from May 2004 through November 2006. More details can be found on Acer's corporate Web site.

Sony has paid millions to PC makers under the recall programs. The recall also added to the pile of recent woes for the Japanese giant.

So far, the US Consumer Product Safety Commission has received reports of 16 batteries overheating, according to Acer. A video of a Dell notebook spontaneously bursting into flames was a big hit on YouTube.

Several start-ups and established companies have been tinkering with making batteries out of less volatile materials such as zinc to make batteries. Other companies, meanwhile, such as Boston Power and Panasonic, have come out with safer lithium-ion batteries.