Grantham · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Grantham workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Grantham
Grantham is a Lincolnshire market town of around 45,000 on the A1, the birthplace of Margaret Thatcher, where Isaac Newton went to school, and an engineering town at the roots of the tank.
The signature trade is engineering and food - the agricultural-machinery and advanced engineering of the Hornsby heritage, the food and drink manufacturing, and the logistics - across the Springfield Road and Alma Park estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Grantham 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 Springfield Road units to the one-bench Grantham workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Grantham and across Lincolnshire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Weld-fume, machining-mist and grinding extraction across the agricultural-machinery and advanced-engineering units, a trade rooted in the town's diesel-engine and tank heritage, where metal fume and mist need capture at source.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food and drink producers, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
Battery-charging, weld-fume and paint extraction across the A1 distribution parks, where the maintenance bays need capture proven.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Springfield Road and Alma Park units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Grantham 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 Grantham College and Grantham and District Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Grantham
We are out under Grantham's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An agricultural-machinery engineering works in Grantham had a weld-fume and grinding extraction bench pulling weak because a branch damper had corroded part-shut. We freed the damper, re-ran the capture check at the bench and measured the branch flow. It failed at first on the low capture and passed once it was reset, the fume drawn cleanly off the work. The shop welded heavy machinery chassis, so on-torch capture was checked alongside the bench arm.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Grantham 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 Springfield 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 Grantham line.
Where exposure is in question - an engineering and advanced manufacturing process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 makes it plain: any LEV controlling exposure to a hazardous substance has to be thoroughly examined and tested at intervals no greater than fourteen months, and the resulting records kept for at least five years.
On most Grantham sites - the Springfield Road units and the smaller workshops alike - it is the fourteen-month clock that bites: let it lapse and the system is non-compliant that day, however well it seems to run. We examine it, tag each hood with its status and next-due date, and hand over the report an HSE inspector or insurer will want. Where something fails you get the reading, the cause and the remedy - never just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Grantham 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 Grantham duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Alma Park Industrial 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 engineering and advanced manufacturing bay, a food and drink manufacturing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Springfield 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. We plan testing around production shifts at the Springfield Road units, term-time access at the Grantham university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Grantham, but a Springfield Road fabrication shop and a Westgate canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Engineering and advanced manufacturing, food and drink manufacturing, logistics and distribution, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Springfield Road and Alma Park Industrial Estate and across the wider Lincolnshire.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Springfield Road and Alma Park Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Lincolnshire.
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 Springfield Road unit will ask to see.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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