Crawley · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Crawley workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Crawley
Crawley is a post-war new town of around 118,000 in West Sussex, its economy anchored by Gatwick Airport and the vast Manor Royal business district.
The heavy work is aviation and precision engineering - the aircraft maintenance around Gatwick, the aerospace and defence engineering, and the medical-device and electronics manufacture - across Manor Royal, with the fabrication, bodyshops and logistics units around it.
Wherever a Crawley 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 Manor Royal units down to the smallest Crawley workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Crawley employers and others across West Sussex it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Fume, solvent and composite-dust extraction across the Gatwick aircraft-maintenance and MRO lines, where paint, sealant and composite dust need capture at source.
Machining, grinding and weld-fume extraction across the aerospace and defence engineering units on Manor Royal, where metal dust and mist need capture proven.
Solder-fume, solvent and conformal-coating extraction across the medical-device and electronics lines, where fume needs capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Manor Royal and Fleming Way units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Crawley 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 Crawley College and Crawley Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Crawley
We are out under Crawley's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An aviation-component maintenance hub in Crawley had a large sandblasting cabinet with a badly worn, torn rubber sleeve seal on the secondary exhaust duct. We patched the torn section temporarily to check the system's potential and ran an overall volumetric flow check. It failed on the structural breach - particulate was escaping and the duct run needed a permanent replacement. The hub sits inside the Gatwick high-security perimeter, so every tool had to be logged in and out at the security gate.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Crawley 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 Manor Royal 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 Crawley line.
Where exposure is in question - an aviation and aircraft maintenance 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.
Across most Crawley sites - the Manor Royal 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 Crawley 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 Crawley duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Fleming Way 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 aviation and aircraft maintenance bay, an aerospace and precision engineering bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Aviation and aircraft maintenance, aerospace and precision engineering, medical device and electronics manufacture, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Manor Royal and Fleming Way and across the wider West Sussex.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Manor Royal units, term-time access at the Crawley 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 Crawley 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 - the industrial estates and workshops around Manor Royal and Fleming Way, the university and hospital labs, and the wider West Sussex.
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 Manor Royal or a smaller Crawley 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 a Manor Royal production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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