Buyers of a thickness gauge in Brazil face two very different problems on the same shopping list. Packaging and paper mills need repeatable readings on rubber, film, tissue, and coated board. Refinery and offshore teams need reliable wall thickness data on steel that is quietly corroding under insulation.
One product family will not solve both. Qualitest supplies two distinct product ranges, each built for one of these workloads, and both available for the Brazilian market through direct sales and local support.
Two Measurement Problems, One Country
Brazil's testing landscape is shaped by scale on both ends. The domestic packaging industry was worth USD 38.53 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 49.14 billion by 2031.
On the other side, Petrobras and its partners operate more than a dozen refineries and hundreds of offshore facilities where wall thinning drives inspection budgets.
A thickness gauge in Brazil therefore has to fit one of two very specific job descriptions. Contact gauges belong on lab benches and production lines. Ultrasonic gauges belong on scaffolds, catwalks, and platforms where the enemy is corrosion.
Contact Gauges for the Pulp, Paper, and Flexible Packaging Boom
Klabin is Brazil's largest producer of paper and cardboard, and it launched EkoFlex to replace plastic in food, hygiene, and pharmaceutical packaging.
Suzano brought its Cerrado project online in July 2024, adding 2.55 million tons of annual pulp capacity from a single production line. The sector plans BRL 61.9 billion in investments through 2028.
That scale creates constant demand for tighter thickness control. Every roll of coated board, every meter of flexible packaging film, and every batch of tissue has a specification, and buyers reject shipments that drift outside it.
The QualiTG Series Thickness Gauges cover this workload with eighteen model configurations. Each variant matches a specific material and standard:
- Rubber compounds: QualiTG-1 and QualiTG-4, per ISO 23529 and ASTM D3767
- Films and foils: QualiTG-2, per ISO 4593
- Textiles and coated fabrics: QualiTG-3, 5, 13, and 14, per ISO 5084 and ASTM D1777
- Leather: QualiTG-6, per DIN EN ISO 2589
- Paper, cardboard, and tissue: QualiTG-9, 10, and 11, per DIN EN 534, DIN ISO 3034, and DIN EN ISO 12625-3
- Waterproofing sheets and geosynthetics: QualiTG-8 and 12, per ASTM D5199 and DIN EN 1849-2
- Flexible packaging film: QualiTG-17 and 18, per ASTM F2251
Foot diameter and applied pressure change with the material. That is why the range spans 4 mm to 56.4 mm feet and 0.7 kPa to 172 kPa of contact pressure.
A generic contact gauge accepts readings that drift as the material changes. The correct QualiTG configuration keeps the gauge and the standard aligned.
Ultrasonic Gauges for Refinery and Offshore Asset Integrity
Petrobras runs Brazil's downstream fleet, including REDUC in Duque de Caxias, REPLAN in Paulínia, and the Abreu e Lima refinery in Ipojuca. The ANP, the national petroleum agency, sets the regulatory floor for inspection across these assets.
In June 2025, Weatherford signed a multi-year offshore NDT contract with Petrobras. The deal reinforced how central ultrasonic testing has become to platform integrity work.
Corrosion under insulation, sour-service pitting, and erosion in overhead systems all show up first as wall thinning. Portable ultrasonic testing catches that thinning before it becomes a leak.
The QTG Series Ultrasonic Thickness Gauges address this workload with five variants. QTG I and QTG II handle routine inspection with basic and extended-memory functions.
QTG III adds a Thru-Paint feature, so inspectors can measure steel through the existing coating without stripping paint. QTG IV combines Thru-Paint with A-scan and B-scan waveform display for deeper analysis. QTG V uses electromagnetic acoustic transduction, so no coupling gel is required on conductive metals.
Selecting the Right Thickness Gauge in Brazil
A single Brazilian buyer often needs both product families in the same quarter. The table below maps common Brazilian use cases to the matching Qualitest range:
| Application | Typical User | Recommended Range | Key Feature |
|---|
| Flexible film and pouch QC | Klabin, Amcor, Trivium plants | QualiTG-2, 17, 18 | Foot geometry per ISO 4593 or ASTM F2251 |
| Tissue and cardboard production | Suzano, Irani, Klabin | QualiTG-9, 10, 11 | Compliant with DIN EN 534 and 12625-3 |
| Rubber sheet and gasket QC | Automotive and industrial rubber | QualiTG-1, 4 | ISO 23529 and ASTM D3767 |
| Refinery piping wall check | Petrobras, Braskem sites | QTG III | Thru-Paint on coated steel |
| Offshore platform inspection | FPSO and topsides teams | QTG IV | A-scan and B-scan waveform |
| Field checks without couplant | Utility and pipeline crews | QTG V | Electromagnetic, gel-free |
Standards Behind Reliable Thickness Measurement
Brazilian quality managers specifying a thickness gauge in Brazil work under ABNT-issued national editions of the international standards used by the QualiTG range. ABNT NBR ISO 23529 mirrors ISO 23529, and NBR ISO 4593 mirrors the film thickness method.
Buyers can specify equipment against the international reference and remain aligned with local ABNT documentation. For ultrasonic work, refinery and offshore teams typically follow API 570, API 510, and ASTM ultrasonic thickness methods. The QTG range is an instrument for those programs, not a certification of them.
Discuss Your Application with Qualitest
Brazilian buyers who need one gauge for a packaging line and another for a refinery inspection route usually want a single point of contact, not two suppliers.
Qualitest coordinates both product families under one commercial relationship. Technical support handles ISO 4593 and API-style inspection routes in the same conversation.
Every configuration listed above ships with the correct foot geometry, transducer, or probe pairing for the intended standard. Ordering the wrong variant is the quickest way to spend money on readings a quality auditor will later reject.
Send your material list, your active standards, and your inspection schedule to Qualitest. The team will map your requirements to specific QualiTG or QTG variants and quote the exact configuration you need. Contact Qualitest to start the conversation about your Brazilian project.
