Andover · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Andover workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Andover
Andover is a Hampshire market town in Test Valley, around 51,000, home to the British Army headquarters at Marlborough Lines and to Stannah, the stairlift maker, on the River Anton.
The signature trade is logistics and manufacturing - the A303 distribution, the stairlift and advanced engineering, and the food and drink manufacturing - across the Walworth Business Park and Portway estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every one of those Andover processes puts fume, dust, mist or vapour into the air, and COSHH requires it controlled at source - which means local exhaust ventilation, thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test the LEV across all of it - from the Walworth Business Park units to the smaller Andover workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Andover and the wider Hampshire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Battery-charging, weld-fume and paint extraction across the A303 distribution parks, where the maintenance and fabrication bays need capture at source.
Weld-fume, machining-mist and coating extraction across the stairlift and advanced-engineering units, a defining trade of the town, where metal fume and mist need capture proven.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food and drink producers, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Walworth Business Park and Portway units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Andover bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for Andover College and the Andover War Memorial Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Andover
We are out under Andover's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A stairlift-manufacturing plant in Andover had a weld-fume extraction arm on a rail-fabrication bay drooping short of the work because its internal spine had cracked. We clamped the arm to hold position, measured the capture at the tip and logged the mechanical fault. It passed on the airflow but failed on the arm's positioning integrity, so the hood could not be held over the weld. Since the HSE reclassified all welding fume as carcinogenic in 2019, on-torch capture was checked alongside the arm.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On an Andover system it has to establish three things - that the plant and ductwork are sound, that the hoods still capture, and that the capture still meets the figure the system was designed around.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Walworth Business Park units - the faults that quietly kill capture.
Face and capture velocities, static pressures and airflows measured at each hood with calibrated instruments - numbers, not opinion.
Readings compared to the system's commissioning figures, so drift from as-designed is caught before it becomes a failure on an Andover line.
Where exposure is in question - a logistics and distribution process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
The duty is written into COSHH Regulation 9: where LEV controls a hazardous substance, the employer must have it thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months and keep the records for five years.
Across most Andover sites - the Walworth Business Park plant and the smaller units alike - it is the fourteen-month interval that trips people up, because a lapsed test leaves the system non-compliant from that date whatever its real condition. We run the examination, mark every hood with its result and next-due date, and produce the report your insurer or an HSE inspector will look for, and any failed point comes back with its reading, its cause and the fix rather than a bare red tag.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Andover site.
Calibrated velocity, pressure and airflow readings at each extraction point.
A COSHH-compliant report: results against benchmark, clear pass or fail, and plain-English actions for the Andover duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Portway Industrial Estate floor.
Questions
Under COSHH Regulation 9, most local exhaust ventilation needs a thorough examination and test at least every 14 months, with higher-risk processes more often. A logistics and distribution bay, an advanced engineering and manufacturing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Walworth Business Park units, term-time access at the Andover university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
A dated report to the HSG258 method, the readings taken, a pass or remedial outcome for each hood, and system labelling - the evidence a duty-holder at Walworth Business Park or a smaller Andover workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. Each hood is labelled with its status and next-due date, and you get the HSG258 report and system schematic for your COSHH file - the record an HSE inspector visiting a Walworth Business Park unit will ask to see.
Logistics and distribution, advanced engineering and manufacturing, food and drink manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Walworth Business Park and Portway Industrial Estate and across the wider Hampshire.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at an Andover workshop needs a commissioning test to prove it performs to its design figures before it goes into service - we measure it and document the baseline the 14-month clock then runs from.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Walworth Business Park and Portway Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Hampshire.
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