Siemens has been explaining how its Simcenter Sound Camera can be used to localise electric arcs and therefore help to repair battery packs. The camera makes use of the fact that an electric arc creates noise.

A defective connection between battery cells will create an arc when the pack is tested. That creates the noise, which is located using the camera.

An arc is a transient event that takes less than a second, but the noise source can be seen in real time during measurement. By using unique techniques in the camera’s software, such as Bayesian focusing, the localisation of the defect cell can be determined exactly. A hologram produced by the camera will show the defect location as a red dot.