Process for making a reinforced structural member, in particular forming part of an automobile or other vehicle or an aeroplane or a ship, the reinforced structural member comprising an original structural member and a reinforcing carrier and an adhesive bead and/or a plurality of adhesive plots arranged between an outer surface of the reinforcing carrier and a contact surface of the original structural member, for structurally bonding the reinforcing carrier to the original structural member.

A laser welding apparatus is provides that includes: a support member including a heat generation portion which has a size that is limited to correspond to a size of a welding area of a plurality of plastic components and is made from a material that absorbs a laser beam and generates heat, and which generates heat of a temperature that is equal to or greater than a melting temperature of the plastic components; a laser beam irradiation unit for converging a laser beam to be transmitted through the plurality of plastic components, and irradiating the laser beam toward the heat generation portion through the plurality of plastic components; and a welding controller for causing a laser beam to be irradiated at the heat generation portion using the laser beam irradiation unit to thereby cause the heat generation portion to generate heat, and welding abutting faces of a welding area of the plurality of plastic components with heat that is generated.

A flexible container is provided. The flexible container includes four panels. The four panels form (i) a body portion; (ii) a neck portion, and a flare portion that extends from the neck portion; (iii) a tapered transition portion between the body portion and the neck portion; and (iv) the neck portion has a reduced width. The flare portion has an expanded end. The width of the flare portion gradually increases from the neck portion to the expanded end.

A connection, and methods of making an using such a connection, the connection comprising a first layer; a second layer concentrically disposed about the first layer; and a laser-induced seal between portions of the first and second layers; wherein the laser-induced seal provides a fluid-tight engagement between the first and second layers. As to particular embodiments of the connection, the first layer can be incorporated into a first conduit and the second layer can be incorporated into a second conduit.

A centrifugal blood pump prevents a shaft member from oscillating due to expansion of a pump housing resulting from pressurization of the blood. The centrifugal blood pump is manufactured by assembling a bottom member 21 and a lid member 22, and compressing them in a direction in which the bottom member 21 and the lid member 22 approach each other by a deformation amount along their outer circumferential walls. The lid member and the bottom member are joined while in the compressed state in order to create a preloading force between the shaft member and bearings to resist the expansion due to pressurization of the blood during use.

Provided is a transparent plastic container that may be laser-welded even though the transparent plastic container does not contain a significant quantity of laser absorber and has excellent transparency, and a method for efficiently producing the transparent plastic container. A transparent plastic container including a cover portion made of a transparent polyester resin and a main plastic container body made of a transparent polyester resin and a method for producing the transparent plastic container are characterized in that the cover portion is welded to the main plastic container body by condensed light of a long-wavelength laser having a wavelength of above or equal to 1.0 m.

A flexible container is provided. The flexible container includes four panels. The four panels form (i) a body portion; (ii) a neck portion, and a flare portion that extends from the neck portion; (iii) a tapered transition portion between the body portion and the neck portion; and (iv) the neck portion has a reduced width. The flare portion has an expanded end. The width of the flare portion gradually increases from the neck portion to the expanded end.

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.

A method of sealing a container and a lid by melt adhesion by laser. Either the container or the lid has a thermoplastic resin that permits the laser beam to transmit through and the other one has a resin composition of the thermoplastic resin containing a heat-generating substance. Further, the laser beam applies a rectangular beam having a uniform intensity distribution. The upper-limit of temperature is not lower than a melting point of the thermoplastic resin but lower than a thermal decomposition start temperature thereof in the melt adhesion interface between the container and the lid, and the temperature reaches the upper-limit in a heating time t (msec) represented by the following formula (1),
t (msec)=L/S(1)
where L is the length (mm) of the rectangular beam in the scanning direction, and S is the rate of laser scanning (mm/msec) of not higher than 1.65 mm/msec.