Bridgend · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Bridgend workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Bridgend
Bridgend is a manufacturing town of around 50,000 in South Wales, sitting on the River Ogmore midway along the M4 between Cardiff and Swansea, long anchored by its automotive engineering and Sony electronics heritage.
The signature trade is advanced manufacturing - the automotive and precision engineering, the electronics and technology manufacturing, and the food and drink and general fabrication - across the Brackla Industrial Estate and Waterton Industrial Estate estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every one of those Bridgend 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 Brackla Industrial Estate units to the smaller Bridgend workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Bridgend employers and others across South Wales it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Weld-fume, oil-mist and machining-fume extraction across the automotive supply chain and precision-engineering units, a defining trade of the town, where CNC machining and cutting-fluid mist need capture at source.
Solder-fume and cleanroom-vapour extraction across the electronics and broadcast-equipment lines, where reflow soldering carries a respiratory sensitiser and needs capture proven at each station.
Steam, flour-dust and weld-fume extraction across the food processors and fabrication units of the estates, where cooking fume and metal dust each need their own capture.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Brackla Industrial Estate and Waterton units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Bridgend 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 Bridgend College and the Princess of Wales Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Bridgend
We are out under Bridgend's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An electronics-manufacturing plant in Bridgend had a solder-fume extraction over a reflow-and-assembly line pulling weak, letting solder fume drift into the assembly area. We measured the capture at the line and checked the extraction arms and ducting for losses. It failed on the low capture and the fume breakthrough, and we specified the remedial work. Solder fume carries a respiratory sensitiser, so the capture at each station was checked against the line's throughput.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Bridgend 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 Brackla 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 Bridgend line.
Where exposure is in question - an automotive and precision engineering process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
Under Regulation 9 of COSHH the obligation sits squarely with the employer - any LEV that controls a hazardous substance needs a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, and the records held for five years.
For most Bridgend sites - from the Brackla Industrial Estate units to the smaller workshops - the fourteen-month clock is the one that bites: miss it and the system is non-compliant the day it lapses, whatever its condition. We examine, label each hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer will ask to see. If something fails, you get the reading, the cause and the fix - not just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Bridgend 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 Bridgend duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Waterton 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. An automotive and precision engineering bay, an electronics and technology manufacturing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Automotive and precision engineering, electronics and technology manufacturing, food and drink and general fabrication, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Brackla Industrial Estate and Waterton Industrial Estate and across the wider South Wales.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Brackla Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Bridgend university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Brackla Industrial Estate and Waterton Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider South Wales.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Bridgend 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 Bridgend, but a Brackla Industrial Estate fabrication shop and an Adare Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Brackla Industrial Estate or a smaller Bridgend workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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