Gillingham · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Gillingham workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Gillingham
Gillingham is the largest of the Medway towns in Kent, in a unitary area of around 280,000, home to the Medway Maritime Hospital and the Royal Engineers at Brompton.
The work is engineering and defence - the automotive-component manufacturing of Courteney Road, the defence and avionics electronics of the Medway cluster, and the marine and dockyard-heritage trades - across the Courteney Road and Medway City estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Gillingham 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 Courteney Road units to the one-bench Gillingham workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Gillingham employers and others across Kent it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Solder-fume, weld-fume and coating extraction across the automotive-component units of Courteney Road, where process fume needs capture at source.
Solder-fume, solvent and coating extraction across the defence and avionics-electronics units of the Medway cluster, where fume and vapour need capture proven.
Weld-fume, grinding and paint extraction across the marine and engineering units of the Chatham dockyard heritage, where metal fume and coating vapour need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Courteney Road and Medway City units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Gillingham 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 Universities at Medway and the Medway Maritime Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Gillingham
We are out under Gillingham's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An automotive-component plant on Courteney Road in Gillingham had a soldering-fume extraction arm on a coil-winding line drooping short of the work because its internal support spine had cracked. We clamped the arm to hold position, measured the capture at the tip and logged the mechanical fault. It passed on the airflow but failed on the arm's positioning integrity, so the hood could not be held over the joint. Live production continued alongside, so the bench was screened and isolated for the test.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Gillingham 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 Courteney Road 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 Gillingham line.
Where exposure is in question - an automotive component 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 most Gillingham sites - from the Courteney Road 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 Gillingham 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 Gillingham duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Medway City 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 automotive component manufacturing bay, a defence and avionics electronics 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 Courteney Road unit will ask to see.
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 Gillingham, but a Courteney Road fabrication shop and a Canterbury Street 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 Courteney Road 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 Gillingham 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.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Courteney Road units, term-time access at the Gillingham university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Automotive component manufacturing, defence and avionics electronics, marine and dockyard engineering, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the universities and hospital - the trades clustered around Courteney Road and Medway City Estate and across the wider Kent.
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