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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: How to Detect a Fault in a Safety System

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

Today's automation industry quiz question comes from the ISA Certified Automation Professional certification program. ISA CAP certification provides a non-biased, third-party, objective assessment and confirmation of an automation professional's skills. The CAP exam is focused on direction, definition, design, development/application, deployment, documentation, and support of systems, software, and equipment used in control systems, manufacturing information systems, systems integration, and operational consulting. Click this link for information about the CAP program. The following question comes from the CAP study guide, Performance Domain VI, Operations and Maintenance. Long-term support of the system.

Which of the following MUST be performed to reveal a normally undetected fault in a safety system?

a) proven-in-use
b) proof test
c) system software test
d) system validation
e) none of the above

 

A proof test on a system may reveal faults that would otherwise not be mentioned by internal diagnostic measures and is therefore correct.
Proven-in-use is an assessment on suitability for use and not related to fault detection.
A system software test relates only to software and not to system faults.
System validation takes place to test requirements and specifications and may not reveal faults, which have not been refined by the requirements.

The correct answer is B, proof test.

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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