Caterham · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Caterham workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Caterham
Caterham sits high on the North Downs in the Tandridge district of Surrey, split between the old hilltop village of Caterham-on-the-Hill and the Victorian town that grew up in Caterham Valley after the railway arrived in 1856. It is a name the motoring world knows everywhere: the Caterham Seven, the featherweight sports car Graham Nearn kept alive from Colin Chapman's Lotus design, was built and sold from the town for years.
Its working economy runs on precision engineering, the fabrication trades and food production, much of it grouped in the light-industrial units along Chaldon Road and Godstone Road and on Hayes Industrial Estate.
Every Caterham 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 Hayes Industrial Estate plant to the single-bench Caterham 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 Caterham and the rest of Surrey it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and lathes, from the motorsport-engineering instinct the Caterham Seven left behind to the precision shops working out of the light-industrial units on Chaldon Road and Godstone Road.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in Caterham's bakeries, kitchens and small food producers, where extraction keeps heat, moisture and airborne flour out of the working air.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Caterham cabinet shops and joinery works, where hardwood and MDF dust is captured at the tool before it reaches the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Chaldon Road and Hayes Industrial Estate units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Caterham bodyshops and the motorsport and classic-car specialists the town attracts. 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 science departments of Caterham School and de Stafford School, to the containment their chemistry work demands.
On the ground in Caterham
We are out under Caterham's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A well-known welding bay in Caterham wasn't pulling as it should on the extraction, down to a fan not reaching its rated speed. We took benchmark readings, visualised capture at each hood and dealt with an unsealed joint. Once the loose joint was sorted all points passed on re-test, and the report was handed over on completion. Staff were mid-service and happy to work around us.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Caterham system it settles three questions: is the ductwork and plant intact, does it still capture at the hood, and does that capture still match the design.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Hayes 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 Caterham line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and manufacturing 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.
Across most Caterham sites - the Hayes Industrial Estate 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 Caterham 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 Caterham duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the the light-industrial units on Chaldon 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. A precision engineering and manufacturing bay, a food and drink production bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Hayes Industrial Estate and the light-industrial units on Chaldon Road, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Surrey.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Caterham 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.
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 Hayes 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.
precision engineering and manufacturing, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Hayes Industrial Estate and the light-industrial units on Chaldon Road and across the wider Surrey.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Hayes Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Caterham university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Hayes Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Local knowledge
Caterham gave its name to one of the most celebrated sports cars ever built. Graham Nearn's Caterham Cars had been the leading Lotus Seven dealer through the 1960s, and when Lotus dropped the model in 1973 he bought the rights and kept Colin Chapman's featherweight two-seater in production - aluminium panels over a tubular steel chassis, built to the mantra 'simplify, then add lightness' - from premises in the town until 1987. That precision-engineering instinct still runs through Caterham's machine shops and the light-industrial units on Chaldon Road and Godstone Road, and every one of them carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws off. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation to the standard COSHH sets, so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
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