Abstract: An object of the present invention is to, in high-energy beam welding, improve accuracy of determining a welding quality or accuracy of maintaining a certain welding quality by feedback, thereby improving efficiency of manufacturing a welded product, i.e., a yield. One aspect of the present invention acquires an image of a molten pool by a camera, acquires a width, a length, and an area of the molten pool by image processing, further acquires reflected light, plasma, and thermal radiation light by an optical sensor, and carries out a multiple regression analysis with use of the above-described signals and a signal having an interaction effect among them, thereby accurately predicting a weld penetration depth and thus accurately determining the welding quality.

Abstract: It is an object of the present invention to provide a laser welding method making it possible to secure the effective welding length when the laser beam is applied obliquely. In a laser welding method in which oscillation scanning is periodically effected with a laser beam 4 while moving an object of welding 9 to apply the laser beam to a surface of the object of welding 9 to perform welding, at least one of the output of the laser beam 4, a scanning speed, and a scanning track is controlled, whereby welding is effected with input heat amounts on both left and right sides with respect to the welding progressing direction being substantially different from each other.

Abstract: An object of the invention is to provide a laser welding quality determination method for improving a determination accuracy of a welding quality which is strongly affected by an inner defect of a welding bead, and a laser welding apparatus which includes a mechanism for performing the quality determination method. There is provided a laser welding quality determination method of determining a welding quality in laser welding, including: capturing an image of a molten pool formed by emitting a laser beam to a welding target material to acquire image data of the molten pool; measuring a width of the molten pool in a direction orthogonal to a welding direction from the acquired image data of the molten pool; calculating a penetration depth from the measured width of the molten pool; and determining the welding quality from the measured width and the calculated penetration depth of the molten pool.

Abstract: An inspection-required product selection method and program for minimizing the number of investigation steps at the time of a defect occurrence for a product placed on the market are disclosed. A combination of product lots to be inspected is assumed based on the information on the material lots used for a product lot scheduled for production for a predetermined future period and the number of the product lots inspected during the same period. The number of the material lots not included in the product lots to be inspected is totalized for each product lot, and the statistical values are calculated for all the conceivable combinations of the product lots. The combination of the product lots optimizing the statistical values is selected for inspection.

Abstract: An inspection-required product selection method and program for minimizing the number of investigation steps at the time of occurrence of a defect of a product placed on the market are disclosed. A combination of product lots to be inspected is assumed based on the information on the material lots used for a product lot scheduled for production for a predetermined future period and the number of the product lots inspected during the same period. The number of the material lots not included in the product lots to be inspected is totalized for each product lot, and the statistical values are calculated for all the conceivable combinations of the product lots. The combination of the product lots optimizing the statistical values is selected for inspection.

Abstract: According to a lower limit value of the recycling ratio of collected used products in a storage, constitution of raw materials of collected used products in a storage, constitution of products utilizing recycled materials in a storage, a lower limit value of a recycled material utilization ratio in a storage, a predicted supply amount of raw materials to a recycle process in a storage, and a production plan of products utilizing recycled materials of a production process in a storage, a calculation module creates a production plan of recycled materials in a recycle process to minimize the total of a before-recycle stock in the recycle process and a before-production stock in the production process. Using the production plan of recycled materials, the calculation module obtains a change plan of a recycled material utilization ratio to create a production plan of products utilizing recycled materials in the production process.

Abstract: In a method for scraping off automatically an excessive portion of a workpiece by a cutting tool, a surface shape of the excessive portion of the workpiece is measured, a cross-sectional area variation of the excessive portion along a feed course in which the cutting tool will proceed during a cutting operation thereof is calculated from the measured surface shape of the excessive portion, and the excessive portion is scraped off in the feed course with a feed speed of the cutting tool which is changed in accordance with the calculated cross-sectional area variation of the excessive portion along the feed course, so that the larger the calculated cross-sectional area of the excessive portion is, the smaller the feed speed of the cutting tool is, and the smaller the calculated cross-sectional area of the excessive portion is, the larger the feed speed of the cutting tool is.