NR-13: selling pressure vessels into Brazil
Brazil does not make you build a pressure vessel to a Brazilian code. NR-13 requires the code you used to appear in the vessel’s documentation file and on its nameplate, and without it import and sale are prohibited. What the documents must contain, which items a file prepared for another market will not already have, and what falls to your Brazilian importer and their engineer.
What NR-13 is, and which vessels it covers
NR-13 is Brazil’s workplace-safety regulation for boilers, pressure vessels, their interconnecting piping and metal storage tanks, issued by the Ministry of Labour and Employment. The current text was approved by Portaria MTP nº 1.846 of 2022. It is not a product-certification scheme: most of its obligations fall on the employer that installs and operates the equipment in Brazil. The part that reaches a foreign manufacturer is the documentation and marking the vessel must arrive with.
A pressure vessel is within NR-13 when the product of its maximum operating pressure in kPa and its internal volume in m³ is over 8, or whatever that product if it contains a class A fluid: flammable fluids, combustible fluids at 200 °C or more, fluids toxic at 20 ppm or less, hydrogen and acetylene (13.2.1). The regulation lists exclusions, among them transportable containers, vessels with an internal diameter under 150 mm, vessels in the auxiliary systems of machinery packages, and hydraulic accumulators (13.2.2).
Note that the pressure is the maximum operating pressure, not the design pressure or the maximum allowable working pressure.
The construction code: the omission that stops a sale
NR-13 does not require a Brazilian construction code and does not name one you must use. It requires that the code the vessel was built to, with its edition year, is stated in the vessel’s documentation file, the prontuário, and on its nameplate. Construction, import, sale, lease and use of a vessel without that indication are prohibited (13.3.13, for equipment manufactured from 20 March 2018).
It costs almost nothing to include when the plate and the file are prepared. Its absence is a prohibition, not a defect to be corrected at leisure after delivery.
What the prontuário must contain
The prontuário is supplied by the manufacturer (13.5.1.5). It must contain the construction code and its edition; the specification of materials; the procedures used in fabrication, assembly and final inspection; the method used to establish the maximum allowable working pressure (PMTA in Portuguese, usually MAWP in English); the drawings and other data needed to monitor the vessel’s service life; the maximum operating pressure; the records of the hydrostatic test carried out during fabrication; the vessel’s functional characteristics; the data of its safety devices; the year of manufacture; and the vessel’s category.
Most of that already exists in a technical file built to the European Pressure Equipment Directive or to ASME. Two items are Brazilian and will not be there unless someone added them: the NR-13 category, and, for the two most demanding categories, an operating manual in Portuguese.
The documents may be kept electronically, provided a signature is validated by a certification authority and their authenticity and integrity are assured (13.3.9).
The nameplate
The vessel must carry an indelible nameplate, fixed where it is visible and easy to reach, showing at least the manufacturer, the identification number, the year of manufacture, the PMTA, and the construction code with its edition year (13.5.1.3).
Separately, the vessel’s category and its identification number must be displayed where they can be seen (13.5.1.4). Adding the category to the plate or to a marking beside it settles that before the vessel ships.
The category is not your European category
NR-13 sorts vessels into categories I to V (13.5.1.1). The category comes from a table combining the fluid class, A to D, with a risk group set by the product of pressure and volume, and this time the pressure is in MPa, not kPa. The same vessel therefore has two pressure-times-volume figures in the same regulation, a thousand times apart, and using the wrong one gives the wrong answer.
The category decides, among other things, how often the vessel must be inspected in service and whether a Portuguese operating manual is required. It is a separate scale from the categories of the Pressure Equipment Directive, calculated differently.
The hydrostatic test and the operating manual
Every vessel must be hydrostatically tested during fabrication, proven by a report signed by a technical responsible appointed by the manufacturer or the importer (13.5.4.3). Without that proof, a vessel manufactured or imported from 2 May 2014 must be tested during its initial inspection in Brazil instead (13.5.4.3.1).
A vessel in category I or II must have an operating manual in Portuguese, covering at least start-up and shutdown, routine operating procedures and parameters, emergencies, and general safety, health and environmental procedures (13.5.3.1). The regulation places this on the employer; in practice it is written from the manufacturer’s own documentation.
What falls to your importer and their engineer
Some obligations cannot be met from the factory. The initial safety inspection happens at the final installation site, before the vessel enters service (13.5.4.2). The safety valve or other safety device must be set at or below the PMTA, whether it is fitted to the vessel or to the system around it (13.5.1.2). The operating establishment keeps the safety register and the inspection records (13.5.1.5).
Engineering responsibility in Brazil sits with a Profissional Legalmente Habilitado, an engineer legally entitled to practise in this field in Brazil (13.3.2). Engineering services there are subject to an Anotação de Responsabilidade Técnica, an ART, registered with the regional engineering council (Lei 6.496/1977, art. 1). Which ARTs your importer’s engineer will need for your vessel is a question to put to them early rather than something to assume.
Vessels demonstrably manufactured in series must also be certified under Brazil’s conformity assessment system where that applies (13.3.12). If you build in series, confirm with your importer whether an INMETRO regulation covers your product before treating NR-13 as the whole picture.
Before you rely on this page
This page summarises the consolidated NR-13 text published by the Ministry of Labour and Employment, as at 14 September 2026, and cites the item behind each point. It is not an engineering opinion and does not replace the regulation or your Brazilian engineer. The official text on gov.br is the authority; check the items that matter to your vessel against it.
We can check one vessel’s documentation against each item above and send back what we located, what we could not find, and what falls outside the documents for your importer’s engineer. The check locates evidence; it does not certify a vessel or say that it meets NR-13. To have a file checked, write to [email protected].