SNQC (ABENDI) Audit Preparation for Inspection Companies
A SNQC (ABENDI) audit runs in 6 stages, beginning with application to abendi naming the method, level and industrial sector, supported by.. ABENDI — Associação Brasileira de Ensaios Não Destrutivos e Inspeção, acting as an Organismo de Certificação de Pessoas (OPC) accredited by the Coordenação Geral de Acreditação (Cgcre) of Inmetro tests the system by sampling finished work backwards to the records behind it, so preparation means reconciling.
SNQC is Brazil's national NDT personnel certification scheme. ABENDI began building it in the early 1980s, brought it into national operation at the end of that decade and has issued certificates since the early 1990s under its own scheme document NA-001, which implements ISO 9712. For a service provider this is a hiring and mobilisation constraint, not a company certification to buy: ABENDI certifies people, and a firm demonstrates capability by holding a clean file of its technicians' valid certificates. Certificates are granted per method, per level and per industrial sector, so a technician certified for the oil and petrochemical sector is not automatically covered for steel, aerospace or nuclear work. What separates firms that clear an audit from firms that collect findings is not the quality of the documentation but whether it describes what actually happens.
Source: ABENDI scheme document NA-001, 'Qualificação e Certificação de Pessoas em Ensaios Não Destrutivos', which implements ISO 9712 and governs SNQC/END; ABENDI's certification pages at www1.abendi.org.br/certificacao for methods, sublevels, levels and industrial sectors; ABENDI's article 'Nova edição da Norma ISO 9712', published 27 February 2023, for the SNQC realignment to the new ISO 9712 edition. ABENDI's accreditation by Inmetro as an Organismo de Certificação de Pessoas under ABNT NBR ISO/IEC 17024, and the sixty-month certificate validity, from ABENDI's published SNQC material. Limitation: the abendi.org.br host — which serves the NA-001 PDF and the SNQC history page — refused connections from this environment on 21 August 2026, so the current NA-001 revision number, the precise recertification route and ABENDI's OPC accreditation number were not read from the primary documents and are deliberately not stated here. Verified 21 August 2026.
| Stage | What happens | What it tests |
|---|---|---|
| Stage 1 | Application to ABENDI naming the method, level and industrial sector, supported by training and experience evidence. | Where the paperwork is tested against itself |
| Stage 2 | Eligibility screening — ABENDI verifies training hours, documented industrial experience and a current vision examination before admitting the candidate to. | Where the paperwork is tested against practice |
| Stage 3 | Qualification examinations — general, specific and practical components. | Where the paperwork is tested against practice |
| Stage 4 | Impartial analysis and decision by ABENDI personnel or a committee formally designated for the purpose and not involved in conducting. | Where the paperwork is tested against practice |
| Stage 5 | Formalisation — ABENDI issues the certificate naming the NDT method, level and sublevel, and the industrial sector qualified for. | Where the paperwork is tested against practice |
| Stage 6 | Surveillance through the validity period and recertification at its end. | Where the paperwork is tested against practice |
| Renewal | ABENDI publishes that certification at any of the three levels is valid for sixty months, after which recertification is required. The scheme follows ISO 9712's structure, in which continued validity depends on maintaining satisfactory vision records and continuity of activity in the method. Do not quote a recertification route — examination versus a documented structured-credit path — to a client without reading the current NA-001 revision, which has been revised many times and had reached at least Rev 34; ABENDI announced in February 2023 that SNQC was being updated to align with the new ISO 9712 edition, the first in roughly ten years. | Diarised from the certificate date, not the last audit |
How long does SNQC (ABENDI) audit preparation take?
Document work — the written practice, procedures and quality manual — takes weeks. What cannot be compressed is documented experience and records history: on-the-job hours accrue in real time, and calibration and certification history cannot be back-filled. Firms that start when the audit is scheduled rather than announced clear it without findings.
What does ABENDI — Associação Brasileira de Ensaios Não Destrutivos e Inspeção, acting as an Organismo de Certificação de Pessoas (OPC) accredited by the Coordenação Geral de Acreditação (Cgcre) of Inmetro look at first?
Records, not manuals. A manual states intent; records show practice. The usual opening move is to take a completed job and trace it back to the technician's certification, the instrument's calibration, the approved procedure and the report — and see whether all four reconcile.
What are the most common SNQC (ABENDI) findings?
Technician holds a valid SNQC certificate for a different industrial sector than the work performed — steel-sector certification used on refinery pressure equipment is the classic case, Phased array or TOFD performed by a technician holding only a general ultrasonic certificate with no corresponding sublevel, NDT procedures approved by a Level III whose SNQC certification has lapsed, or who holds only ASNT credentials, Vision examination records stale, or missing the colour-contrast assessment. Almost all of them are evidence problems rather than capability problems: the work was done correctly and the proof was not kept, or was kept somewhere the firm could not retrieve during the audit.
Can a consultant attend the SNQC (ABENDI) audit?
Yes, and it changes the outcome. Someone who has sat through the same audit at other firms answers in the auditor's own terms, produces the right record without a search, and stops a clarification turning into a finding. The firm still owns every answer — the consultant does not speak for it.
What happens after a SNQC (ABENDI) finding?
A corrective action with a deadline, and evidence of closure at the next audit. Repeat findings are treated far more seriously than first ones, because they show the corrective-action system itself is not working.
Does SNQC (ABENDI) require a pre-audit or gap assessment?
Not as a requirement, but the arithmetic favours it: a gap assessment finds the same evidence problems the auditor would, without the finding attached, and while there is still time to fix them. Firms entering their first SNQC (ABENDI) audit blind typically collect findings that a sampling exercise would have caught.
What the auditor asks to see
- Certificado SNQC for each technician, stating the method, level, sublevel where applicable, and industrial sector
- Formulário de solicitação de certificação — the application lodged with ABENDI for a specific method, level and sector
- Comprovação de treinamento — training records evidencing hours per method and level
- Comprovação de experiência industrial, attested by the employer for the method and level claimed
- Atestado de acuidade visual — near-vision and colour-contrast examination records
- Registros de exames de qualificação — general, specific and practical examination results, held by ABENDI
- Procedimentos de END approved by a Level 3 holding SNQC certification in the method concerned
- Evidence of recertification at the end of the certificate's validity period
Findings to close before the audit
- Technician holds a valid SNQC certificate for a different industrial sector than the work performed — steel-sector certification used on refinery pressure equipment is the classic case
- Phased array or TOFD performed by a technician holding only a general ultrasonic certificate with no corresponding sublevel
- NDT procedures approved by a Level III whose SNQC certification has lapsed, or who holds only ASNT credentials
- Vision examination records stale, or missing the colour-contrast assessment
- Mobilisation packs not reconciled against ABENDI's register, so expired certificates travel to site
- Employer experience attestations that do not evidence the hours or the specific method claimed on the application
- Level 1 technicians interpreting and signing results rather than working under Level 2 supervision
Related: the SNQC (ABENDI) overview, outsourced ASNT Level III cover, written practice development, NDT procedure development, a programme gap assessment, interim Level III cover.