Phased Array Ultrasonics (PAUT) Requirements Under INACAL / OSINERGMIN

Procedure qualification usually requires a demonstration on a representative flawed sample, and the scan plan forms part of the approved procedure rather than a field decision. INACAL / OSINERGMIN, enforced by Instituto Nacional de Calidad (INACAL), Dirección de Acreditación, as the national accreditation.: Employer-based certification is accepted, largely because Peru offers no verified alternative.

An auditor examining PAUT asks for the phased array unit, wedges, encoders, and the calibration blocks used for wedge delay, sensitivity and TCG. Peru is the clearest regional case of accreditation made compulsory by regulation rather than chosen for marketing. INACAL's Dirección de Acreditación accredits inspection bodies against NTP-ISO/IEC 17020, using application form DA-002 filed through INACAL's management platform, with the fee calculated on the number of procedures in scope. OSINERGMIN then layers a sector registry on top. Under Decreto Supremo N° 001-2022-EM, periodic hermeticity inspection of buried tanks and piping storing liquid fuels and OPDH may only be performed by inspection bodies accredited by INACAL and entered in OSINERGMIN's Registro de Empresas Inspectoras, with the inscription procedure approved by Resolución de Consejo Directivo N° 151-2024-OS/CD. Without both, the certificate the site needs has no standing.

Source: Ley N° 30224, Ley que crea el Sistema Nacional para la Calidad y el Instituto Nacional de Calidad, published 11 July 2014, with INACAL operational from 1 June 2015 having absorbed INDECOPI's Servicio Nacional de Acreditación, Servicio Nacional de Metrología and the Comisión de Normalización; INACAL accreditation pages including "¿Cómo obtener la Acreditación?" listing form DA-002 for inspection bodies and the DASGAC platform, and the Organismos de Inspección page citing NTP-ISO/IEC 17020, accessed August 2026; OSINERGMIN "Inspección Periódica de Hermeticidad" page citing Decreto Supremo N° 001-2022-EM, which supersedes DS N° 064-2009-EM, and Resolución de Consejo Directivo N° 151-2024-OS/CD, accessed August 2026; the text of the hermeticity norm read directly, including the definitions of Entidad Acreditada and Certificado de Inspección de Hermeticidad, the 0.1 gallons per hour leak index and the thirty-day filing period; OSINERGMIN supervision guidance for LPG direct consumers and distribution networks, version 1.0, May 2022, read directly, citing DS N° 065-2008-EM Article 19, DS N° 001-2007-EM Article 9, NTP 321.123 clauses 5.1.1 to 5.1.15, ASME Section VIII Division 1, API 510 and NB-23; MINEM DS N° 024-2016-EM, Reglamento de Seguridad y Salud Ocupacional en Minería, as modified by DS N° 023-2017-EM and DS N° 034-2023-EM. No NTP adoption of ISO 9712 was found, so none is cited.

Phased Array Ultrasonics under INACAL / OSINERGMIN — procedure, personnel and evidence
Item	What applies	Why it matters
Regime	Instituto Nacional de Calidad (INACAL) Accreditation and the OSINERGMIN Registro de Empresas Inspectoras	Enforced by Instituto Nacional de Calidad (INACAL), Dirección de Acreditación, as the national accreditation body; Organismo Supervisor de la Inversión en Energía y Minería (OSINERGMIN) as the energy and mining regulator; Ministerio de Energía y Minas (MINEM) as the rule-maker
Method	Phased Array Ultrasonics (PAUT)	Needs its own procedure and its own qualified personnel
Procedure approval	The employer's Level III, qualified in this method	The signature an auditor traces
Other methods in scope	UT, RT, MT, PT, VT, ET	Each needs separate qualification
Renewal	INACAL does not publish the accreditation term or the supervision interval on its public accreditation pages, so confirm both in the current accreditation criteria before committing to a client; do not quote a number from another country's practice. What is fixed sits on the regulated side. For buried tank systems, the first hermeticity certificate is required before the system enters service, and thereafter the periodicity is set by the Índice de Riesgo assessment carried out for that specific installation. The inspection report must be submitted to OSINERGMIN within thirty calendar days of the test, and the hermeticity test itself must detect a leak rate of at least 0.1 gallons per hour (0.3785 litres per hour).	Applies to the personnel certification behind this method

Does INACAL / OSINERGMIN require a separate procedure for PAUT?

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 PAUT procedure under INACAL / OSINERGMIN?

A Level III qualified in PAUT. Because INACAL / OSINERGMIN accepts employer-based certification, that Level III may be contracted rather than employed — but their own qualification must cover PAUT, and an auditor will check that before accepting the signature.

What PAUT records does a INACAL / OSINERGMIN audit sample?

The approved procedure, the technician's PAUT certification on the date of work, and the equipment evidence — the phased array unit, wedges, encoders, and the calibration blocks used for wedge delay, sensitivity and TCG. 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 PAUT finding at audit?

Data acquired outside the scan plan the procedure qualified, or encoder position not recorded. 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 INACAL / OSINERGMIN is recorded the same way as not having done the work.

Can a technician certified elsewhere perform PAUT under INACAL / OSINERGMIN?

Not automatically. Employer-based certification ends when the holder leaves, so the new employer must certify them under its own written practice. Prior training and documented experience transfer as evidence; the certificate itself does not.

What equipment evidence does PAUT need under INACAL / OSINERGMIN?

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 PAUT requirements differ from the other methods in INACAL / OSINERGMIN?

Scope, qualification and evidence are method-specific, so the differences are real rather than administrative. INACAL / OSINERGMIN also covers UT, RT, MT, PT, VT, and each carries its own procedure, its own personnel qualification and its own equipment evidence.

Personnel certification for PAUT

Employer-based certification is accepted, largely because Peru offers no verified alternative. INACAL accredits certification bodies for persons under NTP-ISO/IEC 17024, but no Peruvian body certifying NDT personnel to ISO 9712 could be verified in INACAL's accredited directory. Peruvian technicians therefore hold employer certification written against ASNT SNT-TC-1A, or ISO 9712 certificates issued abroad. An outsourced Level III can sign the written practice, approve procedures and certify Level I and II staff. Note the separate statutory track: tank inspection certification must come from an engineer holding a current API 510 authorisation or from an accredited inspection body, and an ASNT Level III certificate does not substitute for that.