Patent ID: 7660643

Claim:
A solder material test apparatus which tests a solder material used in a printer that prints the solder material on a printer board, comprising: a deterioration degree data acquiring unit which acquires deterioration degree data that indicates a deterioration degree of a first solder material, deterioration degree data being an intensity of an infrared ray having a particular wave number which is obtained by illuminating light to a solder material and detecting the intensity of the infrared ray having the particular wave number reflected from the solder material; a storage unit which stores association data in advance in which a printing process time when a printing process is performed by using a second solder material in the printer is associated with deterioration degree data of the second solder material at the printing process time when the printing process is performed using the second solder material; a reading unit which reads a printing process time associated with the deterioration degree data set as a desired value with reference to the association data, and reads a printing process time associated with the deterioration degree data acquired by the deterioration degree data acquiring unit; an information creating unit which creates information that indicates a time required until the deterioration degree data of the first solder material reaches the desired value or a time when the deterioration degree data of the first solder material reaches the desired value, when the printing process is performed by using the first solder material in the printer, on the basis of both the printing process times read by the reading unit; and an informing unit which notifies the information to a user.