Maidstone · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Maidstone workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Maidstone
Maidstone is the county town of Kent, a borough of around 176,000 on the River Medway with a long history of paper making, brewing and printing.
The signature trades are paper and print, food and drink manufacturing, and engineering and fabrication - across the Parkwood and Quarry Wood estates, with the bodyshops, distribution units and college and hospital labs between them.
Every one of those Maidstone 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 Parkwood units to the smaller Maidstone 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 Maidstone and the wider Kent it is your evidence under COSHH.
Solvent, ink-mist and dust extraction across the print and packaging lines, a trade rooted in Maidstone paper making, where VOC vapour and paper dust need capture at source.
Steam, flour-dust and mist extraction across the food and drink producers, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
Grinding, machining and fume extraction across the engineering and stockholding units, where metal dust and mist need capture proven.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Parkwood and Quarry Wood units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Maidstone 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 MidKent College and Maidstone Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Maidstone
We are out under Maidstone's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An electronics prototyping and soldering lab in Maidstone had the flexible extraction arms drooping away from the benches - the internal friction joints had gone loose and stripped, so the arms would not hold position over the workstations. We tightened and adjusted the mechanical joints on all six arms and tested the capture velocity at 50mm from each nozzle. It passed on airflow, but we flagged the worn structural joints for tracking before they let go again. The lab handled sensitive aerospace circuit work, so anti-static grounding footwear was worn throughout.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Maidstone 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 Parkwood 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 Maidstone line.
Where exposure is in question - a paper, print and packaging process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 puts a hard duty on the employer: any LEV controlling a hazardous substance must have a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, with records kept for five years.
For the great majority of Maidstone sites, from the Parkwood 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 Maidstone 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 Maidstone duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Quarry Wood 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 paper, print and packaging bay, a food and drink manufacturing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Maidstone, but a Parkwood fabrication shop and a Week Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Paper, print and packaging, food and drink manufacturing, engineering and metal fabrication, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Parkwood and Quarry Wood and across the wider Kent.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Maidstone 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.
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 Parkwood or a smaller Maidstone workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Parkwood units, term-time access at the Maidstone university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Parkwood and Quarry Wood, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Kent.
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