Bracknell · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Bracknell workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Bracknell
Bracknell is a Berkshire new town of around 85,000 in the Thames Valley, a corporate and technology hub that grew from the 1949 New Town and centres now on the Lexicon.
The signature work is technology and precision engineering - the electronics and R and D of the Thames Valley business parks, the advanced manufacturing, and the print and finishing - across the Southern Industrial Estate and Downmill Road units, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Bracknell processes throws fume, dust, mist or vapour into the workplace air, and COSHH demands it is captured at source - that capture system is local exhaust ventilation, and it must be thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We cover the lot, from the Southern Industrial Estate units to the one-bench Bracknell workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Bracknell and the rest of Berkshire it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Solder-fume, solvent and coating extraction across the electronics and research units of the Thames Valley business parks, where fume and vapour need capture at source.
Machining, grinding and mist extraction across the advanced and precision-manufacturing units, where metal dust and mist need capture proven.
Solvent-vapour and mist extraction across the print and finishing units, where ink and coating vapour need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Southern Industrial Estate and Downmill Road units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Bracknell 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 Bracknell and Wokingham College and the Bracknell Healthspace, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Bracknell
We are out under Bracknell's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A technology-manufacturing unit on a Bracknell business park had a solder-fume extraction bench on a circuit-assembly line pulling weak because the ducted arm's blast gate had drifted shut. We reset the gate, checked the capture at the tip with a smoke pen and measured the branch flow. It failed at first on the low capture and passed once the gate was reopened, the fume drawn cleanly off the iron. Rosin-based solder flux is a known asthmagen, so the fume path was verified along its full length.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Bracknell 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 Southern Industrial Estate 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 Bracknell line.
Where exposure is in question - an electronics and r and d process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 makes it plain: any LEV controlling exposure to a hazardous substance has to be thoroughly examined and tested at intervals no greater than fourteen months, and the resulting records kept for at least five years.
For the great majority of Bracknell sites, from the Southern Industrial Estate units to the one-man workshops, the fourteen-month deadline is what catches people out: once it passes the system is non-compliant regardless of its actual state. We carry out the examination, label every hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer expects to see - and if a point fails, you get the number, the cause and the fix rather than a bare fail.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Bracknell 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 Bracknell duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Downmill Road 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. An electronics and r and d bay, an advanced and precision manufacturing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Southern Industrial Estate or a smaller Bracknell workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Southern Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Bracknell 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 Southern Industrial Estate production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Electronics and R and D, advanced and precision manufacturing, print and finishing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and health centre - the trades clustered around Southern Industrial Estate and Downmill Road and across the wider Berkshire.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Bracknell 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.
No. LEV testing is a statutory examination of fume and dust control to COSHH and HSG258, with capture and face-velocity readings; TR19 is kitchen grease and fire risk. We do both across Bracknell, but a Southern Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Lexicon canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.