Guildford · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Guildford workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Guildford
Guildford is the historic county town of Surrey, around 80,000, on the River Wey, a major technology and satellite hub around the University of Surrey and its research park.
The work is technology and science - the satellite and electronics engineering, the video-games and research-park tech, and the pharmaceuticals and advanced manufacturing - across the Slyfield Industrial Estate and Surrey Research Park, with the bodyshops between them.
Every one of those Guildford 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 Slyfield Industrial Estate units to the smaller Guildford workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Guildford and the wider Surrey it is your evidence under COSHH.
Solder-fume, solvent and conformal-coating extraction across the satellite and electronics-engineering lines, a trade anchored by the town's space cluster, where fume needs capture at source.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction across the research-park tech and precision-engineering units, where metal dust and mist need capture proven.
Solvent and fume-cupboard extraction across the pharmaceutical and research labs, where reagent vapour needs capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Slyfield Industrial Estate and Surrey Research 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 Guildford bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined to its design figure.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food producers, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
On the ground in Guildford
We are out under Guildford's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A veterinary hospital in Guildford had the anaesthetic-gas scavenging system pulling low vacuum at the surgical tables because an inline moisture-trap filter was blocked. We replaced the saturated hydrophobic filter element and measured the high-vacuum suction. It passed once replaced, with the suction stable at the required 15 kilopascals to capture the waste gases cleanly. It was a sterile clinical setting, so medical scrubs were worn and the test-equipment cases sterilised before entering the theatre.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Guildford system it settles three questions: is the ductwork and plant intact, does it still capture at the hood, and does that capture still match the design.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Slyfield 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 Guildford line.
Where exposure is in question - a satellites and electronics process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
Under Regulation 9 of COSHH the obligation sits squarely with the employer - any LEV that controls a hazardous substance needs a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, and the records held for five years.
Across most Guildford sites - the Slyfield 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 Guildford 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 Guildford duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Surrey Research Park 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 satellites and electronics bay, a technology and precision engineering bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Slyfield Industrial Estate and Surrey Research Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Surrey.
Satellites and electronics, technology and precision engineering, pharmaceuticals and labs, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and food manufacturing - the trades clustered around Slyfield Industrial Estate and Surrey Research Park and across the wider Surrey.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Slyfield Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Guildford 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 Guildford, but a Slyfield Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Tunsgate Quarter canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Slyfield Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
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 Slyfield Industrial Estate or a smaller Guildford workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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