Crewe · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Crewe workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Crewe
Crewe is a Cheshire railway town of around 76,000, the home of Bentley Motors since 1946 and a great railway-engineering centre.
The signature work is automotive and rail - the Bentley car manufacturing with its welding, paint, leather and wood-veneer shops, and the rail engineering and oat milling - across the Crewe Gates Industrial Estate and Weston Road estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Wherever a Crewe 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 Crewe Gates Industrial Estate units down to the smallest Crewe 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 Crewe employers and others across Cheshire it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Weld-fume, paint and wood-dust extraction across the Bentley body, paint and veneer shops, where metal fume, isocyanate paint and hardwood dust need capture at source.
Grinding, weld-fume and paint extraction across the rail bogie and rolling-stock lines, a trade rooted in the town's railway works, where metal dust and fume need capture proven.
Flour-dust, steam and mist extraction across the oat mill and food producers, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Crewe Gates Industrial Estate and Weston 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 Crewe 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 Cheshire College and Leighton Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Crewe
We are out under Crewe's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A rail rolling-stock maintenance depot in Crewe had a grinding-dust extraction bench with its cast-iron surface grates completely plugged with hardened filings and slag. We cleared the grate slots with a heavy-duty wire brush, checked the collector hopper had capacity and measured the downdraught. It passed once the grates were clear, at a solid 0.50 metres per second across the working zone. Active trackside protocols meant full high-visibility railway-spec PPE and steel-toed boots.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Crewe 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 Crewe Gates 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 Crewe line.
Where exposure is in question - an automotive manufacturing 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.
For the great majority of Crewe sites, from the Crewe Gates Industrial Estate units to the one-man workshops, the fourteen-month deadline is what catches people out: once it passes the system is non-compliant regardless of its actual state. We carry out the examination, label every hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer expects to see - and if a point fails, you get the number, the cause and the fix rather than a bare fail.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Crewe 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 Crewe duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Weston 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. An automotive manufacturing bay, a rail engineering 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 Crewe Gates Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Crewe university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Automotive manufacturing, rail engineering, food manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Crewe Gates Industrial Estate and Weston Road and across the wider Cheshire.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Crewe Gates Industrial Estate and Weston Road, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Cheshire.
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 Crewe Gates Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
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 Crewe Gates 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.
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 Crewe Gates Industrial Estate or a smaller Crewe workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.