Cognex has acquired SAC Sirius Advanced Cybernetics GmbH, a German provider of lighting technology. The acquisition of SAC and its technology will expand Cognex’s capabilities in defect detection, and accelerate its growth trajectory with electric vehicle battery manufacturers, according to Cognex. 

The acquisition specifically provides Cognex with computational lighting technology, which, coupled with Cognex’s vision and artificial intelligence tools, will expand Cognex’s capabilities to identify challenging defects.

Cognex plans to feature SAC’s Trevista products with its Vision Pro software offering. The Trevista sensor system process is based on SAC’s patented “shape from shading” technology, in which information about the 3D shape of an object can be obtained from the shading of surfaces. In the process, the surface to be tested is diffusely illuminated by means of a hemispherical scattering body. From several input images, an algorithm then calculates high-quality result images for the subsequent automatic evaluation. By combining the result images in different ways, inspection objects can be checked reliably and flexibly for various defect characteristics, according to the company.

Joerg Kuechen, Cognex’s senior vice president and CTO, said, “SAC’s technology will improve our defect detection capabilities, and position us particularly well with EV battery manufacturers.” Electric vehicle battery inspection is a large, fast-growing market with sophisticated inspection requirements, he said.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.