Farnworth · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Farnworth workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Farnworth
Farnworth sits two miles south-east of Bolton on the River Croal, a cotton-spinning and paper-making mill town that grew rich on coal, iron and the Crompton and Barnes family works. It was here that Thomas Bonsor Crompton patented a continuous paper-drying process in 1821 that helped mechanise papermaking across the world.
Its working economy still turns on manufacturing, food production and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the units at Farnworth Park Industrial Estate off Queen Street and the Express Trading Estate on Stone Hill Road.
Each of those Farnworth processes throws fume, dust, mist or vapour into the workplace air, and COSHH demands it is captured at source - that capture system is local exhaust ventilation, and it must be thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We cover the lot, from the Farnworth Park Industrial Estate units to the one-bench Farnworth workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Farnworth and the wider Greater Manchester it is your evidence under COSHH.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and turning cells across the Farnworth Park Industrial Estate units, carrying on the engineering instinct that the town built on coal, iron foundries and cotton machinery.
Steam canopies, flour-dust control and cooking-fume extraction in the bakeries, food factories and production units on the Express Trading Estate and around Stone Hill Road.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Farnworth joinery and cabinet shops, where hardwood and MDF dust is captured at the tool before it can reach the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Farnworth Park and Express trading units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Farnworth bodyshops along Rawson Street and the New Bury trade units. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is checked to its design figure.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for the college, healthcare and laboratory settings around the town, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Farnworth
We are out under Farnworth's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
Control at the prep bench had fallen away in a small school science lab in Farnworth, with the fume cupboards suffering from a leaking flexible connection. We took benchmark readings, visualised capture at each hood and cleared the debris sitting in the ducting. The LEV passed on re-test across the cupboards, and we issued a compliance report for the HSE file. The supervisor arranged a regular three-monthly visit before we left.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Farnworth 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 Farnworth Park 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 Farnworth line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and 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.
Across most Farnworth sites - the Farnworth Park Industrial Estate 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 Farnworth 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 Farnworth duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Express 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. A precision engineering and manufacturing 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.
precision engineering and manufacturing, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Farnworth Park Industrial Estate and Express Trading Estate and across the wider Greater Manchester.
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 Farnworth Park 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.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Farnworth Park Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Farnworth university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Farnworth Park Industrial Estate or a smaller Farnworth workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Farnworth Park Industrial Estate and Express Trading Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Greater Manchester.
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 Farnworth, but a Farnworth Park Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Brackley Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Local knowledge
Farnworth grew rich on coal, iron foundries and cotton, and Thomas Barnes built his Thomas Barnes and Co cotton works here before chairing the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway. At Moses Gate the Cobden and Lorne Street mills spun cotton by the trainload, their machine shops thick with oil and metal dust. That engineering instinct still runs through the town's manufacturers, and every one of them carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws off. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation to the standard COSHH sets, so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.