Farnborough · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Farnborough workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Farnborough
Farnborough is a Hampshire town in the borough of Rushmoor, around 100,000 people with Aldershot, the birthplace of British aviation since Cody's first powered flight in 1908.
The signature trade is aerospace and defence - the aviation and airport engineering of the RAE and QinetiQ heritage, the defence electronics and R&D, and the composites and precision engineering - across the Cody Technology Park and Invincible Road estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every one of those Farnborough 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 Cody Technology Park units to the smaller Farnborough workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Farnborough and the rest of Hampshire it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Weld-fume, composite-dust and paint extraction across the aviation, airport and airframe-engineering units, the defining trade of the home of British aviation, where metal fume and composite dust need capture at source.
Solder-fume, solvent and coating extraction across the defence-electronics and research units of Cody Technology Park, where fume and vapour need capture proven.
Machining, grinding and resin-vapour extraction across the composites and precision-engineering units, where fine dust and vapour need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Cody Technology Park and Invincible 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 Farnborough 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 Farnborough College of Technology and Frimley Park Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Farnborough
We are out under Farnborough's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An aerospace components research lab in Farnborough had an exhaust-fan inverter fault driving the main ventilation fan backwards. We traced the phase issue with smoke-pen tracking and documented the compromised airflow. It failed on the reverse flow, and we advised the facilities manager to have an electrical contractor re-phase the motor. It was a high-security defence site, so every diagnostic tool was itemised at the perimeter gate.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Farnborough 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 Cody Technology 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 Farnborough line.
Where exposure is in question - an aerospace and aviation 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 Farnborough sites - from the Cody Technology 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 Farnborough 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 Farnborough duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Invincible Road Trading Estate 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 aviation bay, a defence electronics and r&d 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 Cody Technology Park unit will ask to see.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Cody Technology Park units, term-time access at the Farnborough university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Cody Technology Park and Invincible Road Trading Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Hampshire.
Aerospace and aviation, defence electronics and R&D, composites and precision engineering, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Cody Technology Park and Invincible Road Trading Estate and across the wider Hampshire.
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 Cody Technology 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. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Farnborough 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.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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