Equipment Calibration Records for Inmetro / Cgcre
Inmetro / Cgcre names this requirement as "Information on activities performed by third parties and outsourced installations capable of affecting the certification, including equipment connected to SPIE equipment". The equipment custodian owns it, alongside the certification scheme rather than replacing it.
The finding auditors record against this document is: Inspection equipment list incomplete, or calibration not traceable to nationally or internationally recognised standards with no documented and periodically reviewed alternative basis (clause 10.5). Cgcre is the gatekeeper for anything in Brazil entitled to be called accredited. It accredits inspection bodies against ABNT NBR ISO/IEC 17020, testing and calibration laboratories against ISO/IEC 17025, personnel certification bodies against ISO/IEC 17024, product certification bodies against ISO/IEC 17065 and validation/verification bodies against ISO/IEC 17029. For an inspection service provider, accreditation converts a technically competent crew into a report a regulator or a demanding client accepts without argument. Separately, Inmetro owns the SPIE conformity assessment requirements that NR-13 makes available to equipment owners, consolidated in Portaria Inmetro nº 62 of 31 March 2026 — the document that decides, in practice, what a Brazilian plant demands of its NDT subcontractors.
Source: Portaria Inmetro nº 62, de 31 de março de 2026, 'Aprova a Instrução Normativa Inmetro e os Requisitos de Avaliação da Conformidade para os Serviços Próprios de Inspeção de Equipamentos – Consolidado', Annexes I and II, extracted and read directly; it cites Consulta Pública nº 17 of 21 November 2024 (DOU 11 December 2024) and Processo SEI nº 0052600.011368/2022-51, and adopts Portaria Inmetro nº 200/2021 (Requisitos Gerais de Certificação de Produtos, RGCP) as its general certification rules. Cgcre's status as sole recognised accreditation body and the conformity assessment body types and standards from Inmetro's accreditation pages on gov.br. Limitation: the inspection-body scope acronyms — including OIA-END for non-destructive testing and OIA-OG for oil and gas fabrication — come from Inmetro's inspection body accreditation page, but the ftp.inmetro.gov.br and www4.inmetro.gov.br hosts were unreachable from this environment on 21 August 2026, so the scope list was not re-read against the primary page, no accreditation counts are stated, and the accreditation surveillance cycle for OIA is not asserted. Verified 21 August 2026.
| Item | What applies | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Regime | Instituto Nacional de Metrologia, Qualidade e Tecnologia — Coordenação Geral de Acreditação (Cgcre) | Enforced by Inmetro, a federal body under the Ministério do Desenvolvimento, Indústria, Comércio e Serviços; accreditation is performed by its Coordenação Geral de Acreditação (Cgcre), described by Inmetro as the only accreditation body recognised by the Brazilian government |
| Document | Equipment Calibration Records | the traceable evidence that every instrument was in calibration on the day it was used |
| Owner | the equipment custodian | The signature an auditor traces back |
| Where it is checked | Certificate of Conformity issued, valid 48 months from the date of issue. | Usually against a sampled job, not in isolation |
| Common failure | Contracted NDT reports annexed to the consolidated inspection report but neither referenced nor technically validated by the responsible PLH, contrary to the SPIE reporting rule | The gap between the manual and the job file |
What must a equipment calibration records contain under Inmetro / Cgcre?
It has to satisfy Inmetro / Cgcre as Inmetro, a federal body under the Ministério do Desenvolvimento, Indústria, Comércio e Serviços; accreditation is performed by its Coordenação Geral de Acreditação (Cgcre), described by Inmetro as the only accreditation body recognised by the Brazilian government enforces it: the traceable evidence that every instrument was in calibration on the day it was used. 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 equipment calibration records for Inmetro / Cgcre?
The equipment custodian. This regime requires central or third-party certification, so the signature works alongside the scheme rather than substituting for it.
How does a Inmetro / Cgcre 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 Inmetro / Cgcre records be kept?
SPIE certificates are valid for 48 months from issue (clause 6.2.5.3). Maintenance audits run every 12 months from the certificate date. That may be extended to 18 months only where all four conditions hold: certified for at least two certification cycles; no suspension in the last two cycles; no warning in the last cycle; and no Category A non-conformities in the last cycle. The extension takes effect only from the start of the cycle following the request and can be revoked at any time following a major accident, a warning or a suspension. Recertification must be concluded before the current certificate expires. Portaria Inmetro nº 62/2026 revokes Portarias Inmetro nº 537/2015, nº 582/2015, nº 177/2023 and nº 382/2023 twelve months after it takes effect; certificates already issued are updated to reference it at the next evaluation stage, and adoption of INI or a Safety Instrumented System by a certified SPIE requires a specific-scope audit. 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 Inmetro / Cgcre?
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 Inmetro / Cgcre 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: Contracted NDT reports annexed to the consolidated inspection report but neither referenced nor technically validated by the responsible PLH, contrary to the SPIE reporting rule
Where this sits in the Inmetro / Cgcre evidence pack
- Solicitação formal de certificação to the OCP, with a detailed description of the establishment, its location, general layout and the geographic distribution of operating units (SPIE clause 6.2)
- Information on activities performed by third parties and outsourced installations capable of affecting the certification, including equipment connected to SPIE equipment
- Types and quantities of equipment controlled, NR-13 classification, available human resources with their locations, functions and competences
- Programa e plano de inspeção, with evidence of minimum compliance with the programme
- Procedimentos escritos for the principal activities performed
- Arquivo técnico — the maintained, current technical file needed to satisfy NR-13, with mechanisms to distribute information on request
- Registros de qualificação e certificação for own and contracted personnel, including ABNT NBR NM ISO 9712 certificates for NDT inspectors
- Lista atualizada da aparelhagem de inspeção with calibration records and traceability to nationally or internationally recognised standards
- Registros de auditorias internas and the internal audit procedure covering auditor qualification, experience and independence
- Relatório de inspeção consolidado signed by the PLH, with contracted NDT reports annexed, referenced and technically validated by that PLH
Personnel certification context
Inmetro does not certify NDT people; it accredits the bodies that do, under ABNT NBR ISO/IEC 17024, which is how ABENDI's SNQC acquires its legal weight. In the SPIE requirements consolidated by Portaria Inmetro nº 62/2026, clause 5.1.3.11 a requires NDT inspectors to hold the qualification and certification of ABNT NBR NM ISO 9712, welding inspectors ABNT NBR 14842 and painting inspectors ABNT NBR 15218. Employer-issued certification is not accepted for those roles. Clause 5.1.3.12 is the only relief valve: for NDT methods not covered by national standards, an international qualification or documented formal training from the manufacturer or technology owner may be required instead.
Related: the Inmetro / Cgcre overview, outsourced ASNT Level III cover, written practice development, NDT procedure development, a programme gap assessment, interim Level III cover.