Barnsley · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Barnsley workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Barnsley
Barnsley is a South Yorkshire borough of around 245,000, built on coal, glass making and textiles, with the town centre now transformed by The Glass Works.
The work is glass, furniture and engineering - the glass manufacturing, the furniture and timber manufacturing, and the engineering and fabrication - across the Gateway 36 and Capitol Park estates, with the bodyshops and distribution units between them.
Every Barnsley process that gives off fume, dust, mist or vapour falls under COSHH, which requires the contamination held at source by local exhaust ventilation and that LEV thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test right across the site, from the Gateway 36 plant to the single-bench Barnsley units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Barnsley and the wider South Yorkshire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Dust and furnace-fume extraction across the glass lines, a trade rooted in Barnsley's glass-making history, where mineral dust and hot fume need capture at source.
Wood-dust extraction on the CNC routers, saws and sanders. Hardwood dust is a known carcinogen; ductwork and filters are checked for capture and leakage.
Grinding, machining and fume extraction across the engineering and fabrication units, where metal dust and mist need capture proven.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Gateway 36 and Capitol Park units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Barnsley 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 Barnsley College and Barnsley Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Barnsley
We are out under Barnsley's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A furniture manufacturing factory in Barnsley had a 200mm split running along the spiral seam of the flexible duct connecting its main CNC timber router to the overhead rigid pipe. We replaced the split section with heavy-duty wire-reinforced polyurethane hose and measured the duct transport velocity. It passed once the duct was replaced, with the velocity stable at 22 metres per second to clear the large timber chips. The floor was extremely loud, so high-attenuation active ear defenders linked to our test radios were needed.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Barnsley system it has to answer three things - whether the system is sound, whether it still draws at the hood, and whether that draw holds to what it was designed to deliver.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Gateway 36 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 a Barnsley line.
Where exposure is in question - a glass manufacturing process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 puts a hard duty on the employer: any LEV controlling a hazardous substance must have a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, with records kept for five years.
On most Barnsley sites - the Gateway 36 units and the smaller workshops alike - it is the fourteen-month clock that bites: let it lapse and the system is non-compliant that day, however well it seems to run. We examine it, tag each hood with its status and next-due date, and hand over the report an HSE inspector or insurer will want. Where something fails you get the reading, the cause and the remedy - never just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Barnsley 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 Barnsley duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Capitol Park 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 glass manufacturing bay, a furniture and timber 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 Gateway 36 units, term-time access at the Barnsley university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
We record it as remedial and set out what is needed - airflow, ductwork, filtration or capture at the hood. You do the work and we re-test, and on a Gateway 36 production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Glass manufacturing, furniture and timber manufacturing, engineering and metal fabrication, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Gateway 36 and Capitol Park and across the wider South Yorkshire.
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 Gateway 36 or a smaller Barnsley 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 Gateway 36 unit will ask to see.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Barnsley 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.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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