Examination Records for SNQC (ABENDI)
SNQC (ABENDI) names this requirement as "Atestado de acuidade visual — near-vision and colour-contrast examination records". The employer's Level III owns it, alongside the certification scheme rather than replacing it.
The finding auditors record against this document is: Vision examination records stale, or missing the colour-contrast assessment. 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.
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.
| Item | What applies | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Regime | Sistema Nacional de Qualificação e Certificação de Pessoas em Ensaios Não Destrutivos (SNQC/END) | Enforced 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 |
| Document | Examination Records | the general, specific and practical examination papers and results behind each certification |
| Owner | the employer's Level III | The signature an auditor traces back |
| Where it is checked | Formalisation — ABENDI issues the certificate naming the NDT method, level and sublevel, and the industrial sector qualified. | Usually against a sampled job, not in isolation |
| Common failure | 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 | The gap between the manual and the job file |
What must a examination records contain under SNQC (ABENDI)?
It has to satisfy SNQC (ABENDI) as 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 enforces it: the general, specific and practical examination papers and results behind each certification. The test is not completeness on paper but traceability — an auditor picks a finished job and works backwards to this document, so anything it claims must be demonstrable on that job.
Who signs the examination records for SNQC (ABENDI)?
The employer's Level III. This regime requires central or third-party certification, so the signature works alongside the scheme rather than substituting for it.
How does a SNQC (ABENDI) auditor test this document?
By sampling. They take a completed job, find the technicians and equipment used, and trace each back through this document to the evidence behind it. A document that reads well but cannot survive that trace is the most common finding across every regime, not just this one.
How long must SNQC (ABENDI) records be kept?
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. Retention is set by the regime and by the client contract above it, and the longer of the two governs. Firms that set one retention period for everything and document it fare better at audit than firms tracking different periods per record type and losing track.
Does a generic template satisfy SNQC (ABENDI)?
No. A downloaded template describes a generic firm, and the first question an auditor asks is whether the document describes THIS firm — its methods, its equipment, its people, its actual workflow. Templates are a starting structure; the content has to be the firm's own or the trace fails immediately.
What happens if this document is missing at a SNQC (ABENDI) audit?
It is a finding, and depending on the regime it can suspend the certificate rather than merely generate a corrective action. The related finding auditors record most often is: 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
Where this sits in the SNQC (ABENDI) evidence pack
- 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
Personnel certification context
Central, third-party certification — the single most important fact for anyone selling outsourced Level III services into Brazil. ABENDI issues the certificate as an accredited personnel certification body operating to ABNT NBR ISO/IEC 17024; the employer certifies nobody, and an SNT-TC-1A written practice signed by a contracted Level III carries no standing in the scheme. An outsourced Level III can still write and approve procedures, train candidates and act as a firm's technical authority, but only if that individual personally holds a valid SNQC Level 3 in the relevant method and sector. Foreign ASNT or PCN credentials do not convert automatically; the individual sits SNQC examinations.
Related: the SNQC (ABENDI) overview, outsourced ASNT Level III cover, written practice development, NDT procedure development, a programme gap assessment, interim Level III cover.