Cannock · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Cannock workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Cannock
Cannock is a Staffordshire town on the edge of Cannock Chase, in a district of around 100,000 some 20 miles north of Birmingham, gateway to the largest lowland heathland in the Midlands.
The work is logistics and engineering - the distribution of the A5 and M6 Toll corridor, the cable and components manufacturing, and the trades of the old coalfield - across the Kingswood Lakeside and Hawks Green estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every Cannock 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 Kingswood Lakeside plant to the single-bench Cannock units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Cannock and the rest of Staffordshire it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Battery-charging, weld-fume and paint extraction across the A5 and M6 Toll distribution parks, a golden-triangle hub, where the maintenance and fabrication bays need capture at source.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction across the engineering and cable-products manufacturing units at Kingswood Lakeside, where metal dust and fume need capture proven.
Fume, dust and vapour extraction across the polymer and cable-products lines, where process fume needs capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Kingswood Lakeside and Hawks Green units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Cannock 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 the South Staffordshire College Cannock campus and Cannock Chase Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Cannock
We are out under Cannock's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An automotive parts painting facility in Cannock had the spray-booth floor extraction pits flooded and choked with hardened, layered clearcoat runoff. We checked the ceiling-filter input velocities and mapped the air-balance profiles across the deck. It failed on the restricted exhaust paths, and we advised a chemical cleaning specialist to clear the pits. It was a high-throughput floor, so the test was tightly scheduled into a narrow window between production colour-swaps.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Cannock 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 Kingswood Lakeside 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 Cannock 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
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 Cannock sites - the Kingswood Lakeside 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 Cannock 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 Cannock duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Hawks Green 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 engineering and 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 Kingswood Lakeside or a smaller Cannock workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Cannock, but a Kingswood Lakeside fabrication shop and a Designer Outlet canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Logistics and distribution, engineering and manufacturing, plastics and polymer products, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Kingswood Lakeside and Hawks Green and across the wider Staffordshire.
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 Kingswood Lakeside unit will ask to see.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Kingswood Lakeside and Hawks Green, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Staffordshire.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Kingswood Lakeside units, term-time access at the Cannock university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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