Cwmbran · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Cwmbran workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Cwmbran
Cwmbran is a 1949 New Town in the Eastern Valley of Gwent, laid out to replace the coal and steel jobs of the northern South Wales Coalfield and now home to around 47,000 people. Its fully pedestrian centre is the second-largest shopping complex in Wales.
The working economy runs on light engineering, food production and metal fabrication, much of it packed into the Springvale and Llantarnam industrial estates.
Every one of those Cwmbran processes puts fume, dust, mist or vapour into the air, and COSHH requires it controlled at source - which means local exhaust ventilation, thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test the LEV across all of it - from the Springvale units to the smaller Cwmbran workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Cwmbran and the wider Torfaen it is your evidence under COSHH.
Mist and coolant extraction over CNC and grinding lines, plus dust capture on linishing and deburring - a direct descendant of the town's old nut-and-bolt trade. Each hood is tested to the airflow its COSHH assessment sets.
Llantarnam's biscuit and bakery heritage lives on in local food plants, where flour and sugar dust extraction and steam-canopy ventilation keep both the air and the product clean.
Vehicle-exhaust extraction and tyre-bay dust capture across Cwmbran's MOT stations and service garages, ducted out so diesel fume does not gather at the ramp.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Springvale and Llantarnam units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Cwmbran 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 Coleg Gwent and the Grange University Hospital nearby, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Cwmbran
We are out under Cwmbran's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A furniture workshop in Cwmbran had the extraction on its saws pulling below where it should, down to a filter well overdue for replacement. We ran velocity and smoke tests across the wood-dust extraction hoods and freed a loose joint, then re-checked each point. One point failed at first on a blocked filter and passed after remedial work, and we issued full test documentation.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Cwmbran system it has to establish three things - that the plant and ductwork are sound, that the hoods still capture, and that the capture still meets the figure the system was designed around.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Springvale 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 Cwmbran line.
Where exposure is in question - an engineering and precision machining 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 most Cwmbran sites - from the Springvale 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 Cwmbran 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 Cwmbran duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Llantarnam 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 engineering and precision machining 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.
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 Cwmbran, but a Springvale fabrication shop and a Town Centre canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Springvale production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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 Springvale unit will ask to see.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Cwmbran 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.
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 Springvale or a smaller Cwmbran workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Springvale units, term-time access at the Cwmbran university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Local knowledge
Cwmbran grew up around metal. The ironworks that opened here around 1800 passed to the Patent Nut and Bolt Company, then to Guest Keen and Nettlefolds, whose nut-and-bolt works ran until 1972. That engineering DNA survives in the machine shops and fabricators on Springvale and Llantarnam. Wherever metal is cut, ground or welded, local exhaust ventilation keeps fume and dust out of lungs, and we test each hood and arm against the airflow its COSHH assessment demands.
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