Ultrasonic Testing (UT) Requirements Under Inmetro / Cgcre

Sensitivity setting is the auditable step: the reference block used must itself be in calibration and traceable, and its identity recorded on the report. Inmetro / Cgcre, enforced by Inmetro, a federal body under the Ministério do Desenvolvimento, Indústria, Comércio e.: Inmetro does not certify NDT people; it accredits the bodies that do, under ABNT NBR ISO/IEC 17024.

An auditor examining UT asks for instrument, probes, cables, couplant, and the calibration and reference blocks used to set sensitivity. 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.

Ultrasonic Testing under Inmetro / Cgcre — procedure, personnel and evidence
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
Method	Ultrasonic Testing (UT)	Needs its own procedure and its own qualified personnel
Procedure approval	Per the certification scheme and the client specification	The signature an auditor traces
Other methods in scope	PAUT, TOFD, RT, MT, PT, VT	Each needs separate qualification
Renewal	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.	Applies to the personnel certification behind this method

Does Inmetro / Cgcre require a separate procedure for UT?

Yes. Every method in scope needs its own written procedure, approved by someone qualified in that method, describing technique, equipment, calibration, scanning or coverage, acceptance criteria and reporting. A single combined "NDT procedure" covering several methods is a finding under every regime that names procedures individually.

Who can approve a UT procedure under Inmetro / Cgcre?

Approval follows the certification scheme and the governing specification rather than the employer alone. The person approving must hold the scheme's qualification for UT at the appropriate level.

What UT records does a Inmetro / Cgcre audit sample?

The approved procedure, the technician's UT certification on the date of work, and the equipment evidence — instrument, probes, cables, couplant, and the calibration and reference blocks used to set sensitivity. The auditor works backwards from a finished job, so every item has to reconcile with the report and its stated acceptance criteria.

What is the most common UT finding at audit?

An in-calibration instrument used with an unidentified or out-of-calibration reference block. It is a records failure rather than a technique failure — the examination was performed correctly and the evidence supporting it cannot be produced, which under Inmetro / Cgcre is recorded the same way as not having done the work.

Can a technician certified elsewhere perform UT under Inmetro / Cgcre?

Where the scheme's certification travels with the individual, yes — that is the point of central certification. Verify the certificate covers UT at the level required and is current, since scope and expiry are what get checked.

What equipment evidence does UT need under Inmetro / Cgcre?

Calibration status traceable to the day of use, covering the instrument and its accessories — probes, cables, blocks and reference standards for ultrasonics; sources and densitometers for radiography. An in-calibration instrument with an out-of-calibration reference block fails the same way as an uncalibrated one.

How do UT requirements differ from the other methods in Inmetro / Cgcre?

Scope, qualification and evidence are method-specific, so the differences are real rather than administrative. Inmetro / Cgcre also covers PAUT, TOFD, RT, MT, PT, and each carries its own procedure, its own personnel qualification and its own equipment evidence.

Personnel certification for UT

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.