(1) A shape of a distal end face of a nozzle of a laser processing head of a laser processing machine is image-captured by a camera, (2) a position of the center of a nozzle hole is calculated based on the shape of the distal end face, (3) a test beam is irradiated from the nozzle hole, (4) the shape of the distal end face of the nozzle is image-captured while the test beam is being irradiated to calculate a position of the test beam, (5) a positional error between the center of the nozzle hole and the test beam are calculated, and (6) a beam path adjusting mechanism that adjusts an incident angle of the test beam onto a condenser lens in the laser processing head is controlled based on the positional error to make the center of the nozzle hole and the test beam coincident with each other.

A plurality of values measured are relatively compared to determine an optical axis deviation direction in which an optical axis of a measurement beam S deviates from a laser beam L. In performing laser welding in the optical axis deviation direction, an irradiation position of the measurement beam S is changed so that the irradiation position of the measurement beam S is moved to a rear side of the center of the optical axis of the laser beam L in the welding direction.

Laser welding is performed while moving irradiation positions of a laser beam and a measurement beam in forward, rightward, rearward and leftward directions, and the penetration depth of a weld portion is measured during laser welding in each of the directions. Then, a direction in which a value smaller than a reference value is measured is determined to be an optical axis deviation direction, and a correction value is added to the values measured during the laser welding when the laser welding is performed in the optical axis deviation direction.

A method for aligning multiple optical components in an optical system including placing a sphere at a first position that is at a center of curvature of a first optical component, and aligning a focus of a first reference signal with the sphere at the first position. Then, moving the sphere along an axis of optical symmetry to a second position that is at a center of curvature of a second optical component, and aligning a focus of a second reference signal with the sphere at the second position. The first optical component is aligned with the first reference signal and fixing the first optical component, and the second optical component is aligned with the second reference signal and fixing the second optical component.

An optical axis adjusting method includes a position detecting step of emitting a laser beam from a laser oscillator, applying the laser beam to a processing point, and detecting the position of the laser beam by using a position detecting unit set at the processing point, a storing step of storing the position of the laser beam as detected in the position detecting step as a reference position, and an adjusting step of operating an adjusting mechanism of each optical component holder in the case that the position of the laser beam is deviated from the reference position after performing maintenance of each optical component, thereby adjusting the position of the laser beam so that the position of the laser beam is shifted back to the reference position.

An optical apparatus includes a rotatable reflecting member including a first reflecting surface and a second reflecting surface, an optical system including a plurality of reflecting surfaces and configured to sequentially reflect light having been reflected at the first reflecting surface at the plurality of reflecting surfaces to make the light incident on the second reflecting surface, a driving part configured to change an angle of the reflecting member, a control unit configured to control the driving part to change a path of light emitted from the reflecting member after being reflected at the second reflecting surface, and a light incident portion configured to recognize a position of the light having been reflected at the first reflecting surface.

The present invention discloses that a multi-laser cutting method and system, which is applied to a substrate to form a primary substrate having a pattern of rounded corners and a line, the throughput could be improved because CO.sub.2 laser cannot cut the round corner at the high speed, but the substrate strength could be kept due to the high cutting quality of the lines by CO.sub.2 laser. The poor quality of the cutting edges of the round corners will not affect on the substrate strength but the round corner cutting by the second laser unit will speed up the cutting process. The present invention applies the method by the 2 different laser machines to balance the throughput. Because at the same speed, for example 150 mm/sec, the cycle time per 1 substrate will be different due to the different length of the cutting lines.

A laser welding method includes preliminarily heating an entire welding path by irradiating the entire welding path with a heating laser beam for a first predetermined time, the welding path being closed loop-shaped and formed at a boundary between two workpieces as welding objects, and performing scanning with a welding laser beam along the welding path while continuously performing the irradiation with the heating laser beam after the preliminary heating and terminating the irradiation with the welding laser beam after the welding laser beam goes around the welding path.

An optical processing apparatus includes a light source, a condensing optical system, and a shaping optical system. The light source emits light. The condensing optical system condenses the light emitted from the light source onto a processing target position on a surface of an object to be processed. The shaping optical system shapes a spot shape of the condensed light, such that a ratio of a major axis diameter of the spot shape to a minor axis diameter of the spot shape, in a cross section orthogonal to an optical axis of the condensed light on the object to be processed, is a minimum at or adjacent to a focal position of the shaping optical system. A method for optically processing an object is also provided.

A method for manufacturing a laser processed product including a laser processed part is performed by using a laser oscillation section, a beam splitting section and an imaging section. The manufacturing method includes: forming an irradiation mark including an irradiation pattern in a reference irradiation surface by using the laser oscillation section and the beam splitting section, the irradiation pattern including a plurality of irradiation spots; obtaining an image of the irradiation mark via the imaging section; determining a representative position based on positions of the plurality of irradiation spots in the image; determining a deviation amount of deviation of the representative position from a target position; and forming the laser processed part with a irradiation position corrected based on the deviation amount.