Corby · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Corby workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Corby
Corby is a Northamptonshire steel town of around 68,000, nicknamed Little Scotland for the workers who came south for its steelworks, and now a golden-triangle logistics hub.
The signature trade is steel and logistics - the steel-tube manufacturing of the works that built the town, the golden-triangle distribution, and the food manufacturing - across the Willowbrook Industrial Estate and Weldon Road estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Wherever a Corby process releases fume, dust, mist or vapour, COSHH puts the duty on you to control it at source, and the extraction that does so is LEV - subject to a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months. We work across the range, from the Willowbrook Industrial Estate units down to the smallest Corby workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Corby and across Northamptonshire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Weld-fume, galvanising-fume and pickling-vapour extraction across the steel and tube-finishing lines, the defining trade of the steel town, where process fume and acid vapour need capture at source under permit.
Battery-charging, weld-fume and paint extraction across the golden-triangle distribution parks, where the maintenance and fabrication bays need capture proven.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food producers, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Willowbrook Industrial Estate and Weldon 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 Corby 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 local college and the town's community hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Corby
We are out under Corby's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A steel-tube works in Corby had a weld-fume and galvanising-fume extraction hood over a tube-finishing line letting an acidic haze escape because the branch damper had corroded open. We measured the capture at the hood and checked the branch balance. It failed on the damper and the lost capture, and we specified the repair. The line ran hot-dip and pickling processes, so acid-vapour monitoring backed up the airflow test and full chemical PPE was worn.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Corby 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 Willowbrook 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 Corby line.
Where exposure is in question - a steel and steel-tube manufacturing process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
The duty is written into COSHH Regulation 9: where LEV controls a hazardous substance, the employer must have it thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months and keep the records for five years.
For most Corby sites - from the Willowbrook 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 Corby 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 Corby duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Weldon 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 steel and steel-tube manufacturing bay, a logistics and distribution 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 Willowbrook Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Corby university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Corby 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.
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 Willowbrook Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
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 Willowbrook Industrial Estate or a smaller Corby 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 Corby, but a Willowbrook Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a George Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Steel and steel-tube manufacturing, logistics and distribution, food manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Willowbrook Industrial Estate and Weldon Road and across the wider Northamptonshire.
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