Horwich · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Horwich workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Horwich
Horwich sits at the foot of Winter Hill and the West Pennine Moors on the northern edge of Bolton, a town the railway built - the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway raised its vast locomotive works here in 1886 and turned out hundreds of steam engines, and later tanks, before the great site became today's Rivington Chase homes and Loco industrial estate.
Its working economy now runs on advanced manufacturing, food production and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the units of the Horwich Loco Industrial Estate and the Middlebrook Business Park beside Junction 6 of the M61.
Every one of those Horwich 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 Horwich Loco Industrial Estate units to the smaller Horwich workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Horwich and the rest of Greater Manchester it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC lines, from Astemo's electric-vehicle inverter plant on Aspinall Way at Middlebrook to the precision shops that carry on Horwich's locomotive-building heritage.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the bakeries and food units on the Loco estate and around Middlebrook, where airborne dust and vapour are captured before they reach the lungs.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Horwich cabinet shops and joinery works, where hardwood and MDF dust is captured at the tool before it can drift.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Loco Industrial Estate and Middlebrook units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Horwich 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 automotive-electronics test benches and the college and training labs around the town, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Horwich
We are out under Horwich's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
Capture at the welding bays of a well-known Horwich fabrication shop had dropped off because the fan wasn't reaching its rated speed. We ran velocity and smoke tests across the fume extraction arms, cleared a blocked filter and re-checked each point. One arm failed at first on a leaking connection but passed after the remedial work, and a thorough examination and test certificate followed. We worked the early mornings before staff arrived so production kept running.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Horwich 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 Horwich Loco 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 Horwich 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
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.
For the great majority of Horwich sites, from the Horwich Loco Industrial Estate units to the one-man workshops, the fourteen-month deadline is what catches people out: once it passes the system is non-compliant regardless of its actual state. We carry out the examination, label every hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer expects to see - and if a point fails, you get the number, the cause and the fix rather than a bare fail.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Horwich 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 Horwich duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Middlebrook Business 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 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 Horwich 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.
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 Horwich, but a Horwich Loco Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Winter Hey Lane 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 Horwich Loco 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 - the industrial estates and workshops around Horwich Loco Industrial Estate and Middlebrook Business Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Greater Manchester.
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 Horwich Loco Industrial Estate or a smaller Horwich workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Horwich Loco Industrial Estate and Middlebrook Business Park and across the wider Greater Manchester.
Local knowledge
The Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway raised its locomotive works at Horwich in 1886, and by 1889 John Aspinall's shops had outshopped their first engine, a 2-4-2 tank now preserved at the National Railway Museum. The works built its thousandth locomotive by 1907 and turned out nearly five hundred tanks during the Second World War, and that precision-engineering instinct still runs through the town, where Astemo builds electric-vehicle inverters at its Middlebrook plant on Aspinall Way. Machining, moulding and assembly of that kind throws off oil mist, coolant mist and fume, and every source carries a duty to capture it at the tool. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
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