WQA Recertification Quiz

This quiz is based upon “Drinking Water Treatment Units – Component vs. System Certification” by Tina Fischer, CWS-VI on page ____ of this issue.

Certified products in the water treatment industry both protect the health of the consumer and help sort through the variety of performance claims in the market. To fulfill these purposes, the certification process must be both rigorous and scientifically sound. This quiz will delve into some of the steps and requirements of product certification.

1. A drinking water treatment system is considered certified for performance claims if all of the components of that system are certified to material safety standards.
   1. True
   2. False
2. Which claim(s) are allowed for component certification?
   1. Performance claims
   2. Structural integrity requirements
   3. Material safety
   4. All of the above
   5. B and C, only
3. Certain component certification data can be used to save time and money during the system certification process.
   1. True
   2. False
4. Why is an overall materials safety test necessary for a system whose components have been certified for materials safety?
   1. To ensure that no one component exceeds the component certification limits
   2. To ensure that as a whole the system doesn’t exceed the allowable limits
   3. To ensure that the components are not affected by system operation
   4. To ensure that the original component testing was accurate
5. In which case can the data obtained during materials safety test for component certification be reused for system testing?
   1. If the component has been certified
   2. If the component data is well below the allowable limits for the component
   3. If the component testing was conducted under worst case surface-area-to-volume ratio vs. the surface-area-to-volume ratio of the component in the complete system
   4. If the component data was obtained under the most stringent testing conditions
6. Why is the performance section of component certification not transferable to the full system performance?
   1. The component may become contaminated during full system manufacturing
   2. The component performance may change if the flow rate of the system is different from the flow rate used in component certification
   3. Because the system is sealed, the identity of the certified component can’t be verified
   4. All of the above
7. Often, certification agencies can recoup some of the time and money component manufacturers spend on checking component performance claims by performing spot-checks on system flows.
   1. True
   2. False
8. Because complete systems are required to have many different pieces of literature to achieve certification, while components may need only a product label for certification, the literature section in component certification can be skipped.
   1. True
   2. False
9. To maintain certification, every time a product is manufactured, it must undergo certification testing.
   1. True
   2. False
10. How do facility inspections contribute to the certification process?
    1. Help ensure that products are manufactured in a consistent manner
    2. Help reduce the need to test every product
    3. Save manufacturers the time, effort, and cost that would be involved if testing every product
    4. All of the above

Quizzes can only be completed by a person holding current WQA certification. Answers can be submitted in one of two ways.

An original answer sheet (no photo copies) can be signed and returned to WQA per the procedures below. Or, the quiz can be addressed on-line at www.wqa.org.

Go to the WQA Store item under the Member area, scroll down to the FREE Certification Credit Quizzes, find this quiz, enter your information and submit.

Answers can be submitted up to six months after the WC&P issue in which it is printed.