ISA Certified Automation Professional (CAP) program

InTech, Jun 2006

Certified Automation Professionals (CAPs) are responsible for the direction, design, and deployment of systems and equipment for manufacturing and control systems.

The following questions come from the CAP study guide, Performance Domain IV, Development.

Definition: Software development and coding.

CAP questions

1. A binary number of 1101 has a hexadecimal equivalent of:

A. eight

B. 13

C. A

D. D

2. Which set of documents should be reviewed to gain a quick understanding of plant operations?

A. System architecture diagrams

B. Piping and Instrumentation diagrams

C. Plant layout drawing

D. Process flow diagrams

CAP answers

1. The correct answer is D. In hexadecimal, D is the equivalent of 1101 in binary. Eight in hexadecimal is the equivalent of 1000 in binary. Thirteen is not a hexadecimal format. A in hexadecimal is the equivalent of 1010 in binary.

Reference: Thomas A. Hughes, Programmable Controllers, ISA Press, 2001.

2. The best answer is D, process flow diagrams. They depict the flow of material through a plant, the major equipment, and their capacities. These diagrams make it very easy to visualize the plant as a whole.

Piping & Instrumentation diagrams come from PFDs and typically have too much detail to visualize the entire plant. Plant layout drawings provide a visual representation of the physical locations of buildings, major structures, and major equipment, much like a map. System architecture diagrams show the interconnection of all the major control system components. They do not provide much information on how the plant works.

For information about the CAP program, go to http://www.isa.org/CAP.

Reference: Bela Liptak, editor, Instrument Engineers' Handbook: Volume 3 (3rd Edition) Process Software and Digital Networks. CRC Press and ISA Press, 2002.