Article inspection apparatus and performance confirmation method thereof

A performance confirmation method of an article inspection apparatus, the performance confirmation method being for confirming inspection performance of the article inspection apparatus, the article inspection apparatus including a transport belt configured to transport an article in a state in which the article is placed thereon, an X-ray detector including a plurality of light-receiving elements, and configured to detect X-rays transmitted through the article and output a detection signal that enables image formation, an image processing unit configured to execute predetermined image processing on an X-ray inspection image based on the detection signal and output a processed image having an image feature indicating a quality state of the article, and a determination unit configured to determine pass/fail of the quality state of the article based on the processed image, the performance confirmation method comprising:

• a reference image storage step of storing a reference image of a non-defective product of the article;
• a sensitivity correction step of executing light reception sensitivity correction of adjusting a value of the detection signal from the X-ray detector when the X-rays are transmitted through the transport belt without being transmitted through the article to a predetermined reference value for the plurality of light-receiving elements, and outputting the X-ray inspection image after the correction;
• an image quality change detection step of detecting an occurrence of a change factor of image quality of the X-ray inspection image;
• an evaluation image generation step of generating an evaluation image obtained by synthesizing the reference image with the X-ray inspection image after the correction when the change or the change factor of image quality is detected in the image quality change detection step;
• and
• an inspection performance evaluation step of determining propriety of a determination result of the determination unit after causing the image processing unit to execute the predetermined image processing on the evaluation image generated in the evaluation image generation step.