Hucknall · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Hucknall workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Hucknall
Hucknall sits five miles north of Nottingham at the northern edge of the Ashfield coalfield, a market town of around 33,000 people whose aerodrome witnessed the first free vertical flight in aviation history. It was here in 1953 that the Rolls-Royce Thrust Measuring Rig, the machine everyone called the Flying Bedstead, rose off the ground and pointed the way to the Harrier jump jet.
Its working economy runs on engineering, timber, food production and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the units along Wigwam Lane at Whyburn Business Park and Bakerbrook Industrial Estate.
Each of those Hucknall 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 Whyburn Business Park units to the one-bench Hucknall 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 Hucknall employers and others across Nottinghamshire it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and turning shops, a trade rooted in the decades of Rolls-Royce aero-engine testing at Hucknall aerodrome and still alive in the machine shops around Wigwam Lane.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in Hucknall's bakeries and food units, from the ovens that supply the town's High Street counters to the production lines feeding the wider East Midlands trade.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at the timber merchants and joinery works off Wigwam Lane, such as Woodlane Timber, where hardwood, softwood and sheet-material dust is captured at the tool before it reaches the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Whyburn Business Park and Bakerbrook 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 Hucknall bodyshops and MOT garages. 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 schools, college teaching rooms and technical workshops around the town, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Hucknall
We are out under Hucknall's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A long-established blacksmith's forge in Hucknall had the airflow at its welding bench extract arms dropping off since the last test, which traced back to a slipping fan drive belt. We ran velocity and smoke tests across the arms, sorted the belt and re-checked each point. One arm failed at first on a worn impeller and passed after the remedial work, with the benchmark readings logged and reported. We slotted the job into a quiet Monday to suit the supervisor.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Hucknall system it has to answer three things - whether the system is sound, whether it still draws at the hood, and whether that draw holds to what it was designed to deliver.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Whyburn Business 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 Hucknall 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.
Across most Hucknall sites - the Whyburn Business Park 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 Hucknall 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 Hucknall duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Bakerbrook 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. 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 Whyburn Business Park 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 Hucknall, but a Whyburn Business Park fabrication shop and a High 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 Whyburn Business 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 - the industrial estates and workshops around Whyburn Business Park and Bakerbrook Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Nottinghamshire.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Hucknall 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 Whyburn Business Park units, term-time access at the Hucknall university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Local knowledge
On 19 August 1953 the Rolls-Royce Thrust Measuring Rig, known to everyone as the Flying Bedstead, made the world's first free vertical take-off from Hucknall aerodrome, and jet-engine development ran on the site for decades afterwards. That precision-engineering instinct still runs through Hucknall's machine shops and fabrication units, and 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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