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Welcome to the official blog of the International Society of Automation (ISA).

This blog covers numerous topics on industrial automation such as operations & management, continuous & batch processing, connectivity, manufacturing & machine control, and Industry 4.0.

The material and information contained on this website is for general information purposes only. ISA blog posts may be authored by ISA staff and guest authors from the automation community. Views and opinions expressed by a guest author are solely their own, and do not necessarily represent those of ISA. Posts made by guest authors have been subject to peer review.

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AutoQuiz: What are the Basic Components of a Programmable Logic Controller or PLC?

AutoQuiz is edited by Joel Don, ISA's social media community manager.

Today's automation industry quiz question comes from the ISA Certified Control Systems Technician (CCST) program. Certified Control System Technicians calibrate, document, troubleshoot, and repair/replace instrumentation for systems that measure and AutoQuiz-basic-components-of-a-programmable-logic-controllercontrol level, temperature, pressure, flow, and other process variables. Click this link for information about the CCST program. This question is from the Level III study guide, Domain 2, Loop checking. Level III represents a professional who has a 13-year total of education, training, and/or experience.

All of the following are basic components of a programmable logic controller system, EXCEPT:

a) processor
b) I/O system
c) power supply
d) video monitor
e) none of the above

    A programmable logic controller (PLC) has a microprocessor, and it controls industrial processes. It communicates with other process control components through data links, handles simple switching tasks, PID (proportional-integral-derivative) control, complex data manipulation, arithmetic operations, timing, process, and machine control-all without a video monitor. Engineers program it and leave it alone.

The correct answer is D.

 

Joel Don
Joel Don
Joel Don is an independent content marketing, social media and public relations consultant. Prior to his work in marketing and PR, Joel served as an editor for regional newspapers and national magazines throughout the U.S. He earned a master's degree from the Medill School at Northwestern University with a focus on science, engineering and biomedical marketing communications, and a bachelor of science degree from UC San Diego.

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