Derby · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Derby workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Derby
Derby's transport-equipment cluster - aerospace, rail and automotive - is built on 175 years of manufacturing and employs more than 20,000 people.
The heavy work sits around Sinfin, Litchurch Lane and Pride Park - the aero-engine machining and grinding, the rail and rolling-stock fabrication at the UK's largest train-building site, and the precision-engineering and foundry shops that supply them - with the bodyshops and test labs filling the estates between.
Wherever a Derby 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 Pride Park units down to the smallest Derby 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 Derby and across East Midlands it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction on the aero-engine component lines, where fine metal dust and oil mist need capture at source.
Welding, grinding and paint extraction on the rail and rolling-stock lines at Litchurch Lane - heavy metal fume captured at the bench and booth.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the general fabrication units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Oil-mist and fume extraction on the machining and casting shops. Mist and fume clog a collector quietly; a measured face velocity is the only proof it still captures.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Derby 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 University of Derby and the Royal Derby Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Derby
We are out under Derby's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A rolling-stock repair and rail depot in Derby had the overhead extraction hoods on the bogie-welding bays with broken counterbalance dampers - the operators had given up and left them shut. We inspected the damper linkages, lubricated the tracks and measured the face-capture velocities with the dampers fully open. It failed at first on the broken linkages, then passed once we repaired them on site during the test. It was a big unheated shed, so it was high-vis thermal gear and working around the overhead crane movements.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Derby system it answers three things: is the system intact, does it still capture, and does that capture match what it was designed to do.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Pride 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 Derby line.
Where exposure is in question - an aerospace and aero-engine 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 Derby sites - the Pride Park 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 Derby 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 Derby duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Litchurch Lane 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 aerospace and aero-engine bay, a rail and rolling stock bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Pride Park unit will ask to see.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Pride Park and Litchurch Lane, the university and hospital labs, and the wider East Midlands.
Aerospace and aero-engine, rail and rolling stock, welding and fabrication, precision engineering and foundries, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the university and hospital - the trades clustered around Pride Park and Litchurch Lane and across the wider East Midlands.
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 Pride Park 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 Pride Park or a smaller Derby workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Pride Park units, term-time access at the Derby university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.