Kettering · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Kettering workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Kettering
Kettering is a Northamptonshire town of around 63,000 at the centre of the golden-triangle logistics belt, with a boot-and-shoe heritage and Weetabix at neighbouring Burton Latimer.
The work is logistics and manufacturing - the golden-triangle distribution of the A14, the footwear and leather trades, and the food and drink manufacturing - across the Telford Way Industrial Estate and Pytchley Lodge estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every one of those Kettering 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 Telford Way Industrial Estate units to the smaller Kettering workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Kettering employers and others across Northamptonshire it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Battery-charging, weld-fume and paint extraction across the golden-triangle distribution parks of the A14, where the maintenance and fabrication bays need capture at source.
Adhesive-vapour, solvent and dust extraction across the footwear and leather units, a trade rooted in the town's boot-and-shoe heritage, where solvent vapour and dust need capture proven.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food and drink producers, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Telford Way Industrial Estate and Pytchley Lodge units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Kettering 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 Tresham College and Kettering General Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Kettering
We are out under Kettering's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A footwear factory in Kettering had a solvent-vapour extraction over an adhesive and sole-bonding bench running weak because a branch damper had dropped 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 from the closed damper and passed once it was reset, the adhesive vapour drawn cleanly off the line. The bench used solvent-based cements, so vapour monitoring backed up the airflow test.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Kettering 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 Telford Way 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 Kettering line.
Where exposure is in question - a logistics and distribution 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.
For the great majority of Kettering sites, from the Telford Way 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 Kettering 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 Kettering duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Pytchley Lodge 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 logistics and distribution bay, a footwear and leather bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Telford Way Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Kettering 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 Telford Way Industrial Estate or a smaller Kettering workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Kettering 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.
Logistics and distribution, footwear and leather, food and drink manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Telford Way Industrial Estate and Pytchley Lodge Industrial Estate and across the wider Northamptonshire.
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 Telford Way 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.
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 Kettering, but a Telford Way Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Gold Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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