Coventry · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Coventry workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Coventry
Coventry built the British car industry, and its advanced-manufacturing cluster - automotive, aerospace and battery among it - still employs more than 40,000 across the area.
The heavy work sits around Ansty and Whitley - the automotive body, paint and powertrain lines feeding the car plants, the aerospace and composites units, the battery and electrification research at UKBIC, and the precision-engineering and fabrication shops that supply them.
Every Coventry 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 Ansty Park plant to the single-bench Coventry units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Coventry and across West Midlands it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Spray-booth, prep-bay and powertrain extraction across the Coventry automotive units. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Sanding, bonding and machining extraction on the aerospace and composites lines around Ansty, where carbon-fibre dust and resin fume need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the fabrication units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Fume and particulate extraction on the battery and electrification research lines, where new processes need their capture proven from the start.
Oil-mist extraction on the machining and precision shops. Mist collectors clog quietly; a measured face velocity is the only proof they still capture.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for the three universities and University Hospital Coventry, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Coventry
We are out under Coventry's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An aerospace precision-component manufacturer in Coventry had a downdraught bench for carbon-fibre composite sanding that was failing to catch the fine dust at the edges of the bench. We measured face velocities across a nine-point grid on the bench surface and inspected the cartridge filters underneath. It failed on uneven suction - the cartridges beneath the grates were heavily loaded and pulling unevenly. It was a high-security defence site, so no phones or cameras came through the door, and everything was recorded on paper.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Coventry system it has to answer three things - whether the system is sound, whether it still draws at the hood, and whether that draw holds to what it was designed to deliver.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Ansty Park 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 Coventry line.
Where exposure is in question - an automotive body and paint 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 Coventry sites - from the Ansty Park 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 Coventry 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 Coventry duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Whitley 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 body and paint bay, an aerospace and composites bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Coventry, but an Ansty Park fabrication shop and a Foleshill Road canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 an Ansty Park 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 Ansty Park or a smaller Coventry workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 an Ansty Park production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Ansty Park units, term-time access at the Coventry university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Automotive body and paint, aerospace and composites, welding and fabrication, battery and electrification research, precision engineering, and the labs of the universities and hospital - the trades clustered around Ansty Park and Whitley and across the wider West Midlands.
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