Heywood · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Heywood workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Heywood
Heywood is a former cotton-spinning mill town between Bury and Rochdale, known to generations as 'Monkey Town' after an old legend that its men once had tails, with holes cut in the pub benches to fit them through. The reality was more prosaic - the holes carried the men's work stools - but the name stuck from the 1850s and the town wears it with pride to this day.
Its working economy now runs on logistics, engineering and food production, much of it grouped around Heywood Distribution Park - one of the largest distribution hubs in the North West - and the units at Pilsworth Industrial Estate.
Wherever a Heywood process releases fume, dust, mist or vapour, COSHH puts the duty on you to control it at source, and the extraction that does so is LEV - subject to a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months. We work across the range, from the Heywood Distribution Park units down to the smallest Heywood workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Heywood and the wider Greater Manchester it is your evidence under COSHH.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and turning shops in the units off Middleton Road and Pilsworth, a trade Heywood inherited from the machine works that once served its 67 cotton mills.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control across the food and bakery operations at Heywood Distribution Park, where names such as Aldi, Kellogg's and Krispy Kreme run high-volume production and fulfilment lines.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Heywood cabinet shops and joinery works, where hardwood and MDF dust is captured at the tool before it reaches the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Distribution Park and Pilsworth Industrial Estate units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Heywood 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 laboratories, quality suites and technical facilities that support the borough employers, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Heywood
We are out under Heywood's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A busy bakery in Heywood had its dough mixer hoods under-performing against benchmark, with a filter well overdue for replacement. We took benchmark readings, visualised capture at each hood and dealt with the unsealed joint. The LEV passed on re-test across the dough mixer hoods, with a full LEV report for the COSHH file. We timed the job for half-term while the unit was quiet.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Heywood 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 Heywood Distribution 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 Heywood 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
The duty is written into COSHH Regulation 9: where LEV controls a hazardous substance, the employer must have it thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months and keep the records for five years.
For most Heywood sites - from the Heywood Distribution 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 Heywood 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 Heywood duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Pilsworth 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. 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.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Heywood 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.
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 Heywood Distribution 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. 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 Heywood Distribution Park unit will ask to see.
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 Heywood Distribution Park and Pilsworth Industrial Estate and across the wider Greater Manchester.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Heywood Distribution Park units, term-time access at the Heywood 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 Heywood Distribution Park or a smaller Heywood workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Local knowledge
Heywood's factory system began with Makin Mill on Wrigley Brook in the late eighteenth century, and by 1881 the new borough held 67 cotton mills, 67 machine works and dozens of engineering workshops. Plum Tickle Mill opened in 1905 as the largest mule-spinning mill in the world under one roof, and that engineering instinct still runs through the town's machine shops and fabrication units. 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.
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