Pontypool · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Pontypool workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Pontypool
Pontypool sits on the Afon Lwyd in the eastern valley of Torfaen, and few small Welsh towns have left a heavier mark on industrial history. It gave the world 'Pontypool japan', the lacquered tinplate that made the town's name a byword for decorative metalware, and under the Hanbury ironmasters it was where tinplate was first made commercially in Britain.
That metal-bashing instinct still runs through the town, from precision shops and food producers to fabrication and joinery works, much of it grouped in the units at Mamhilad Park Estate and the Gilchrist Thomas Industrial Estate.
Wherever a Pontypool 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 Mamhilad Park Estate units down to the smallest Pontypool workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Pontypool and across Torfaen it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and turning shops, carrying forward the metalworking trade the Hanbury ironworks and the tinplate mills built into the fabric of the town.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the bakeries and food producers working out of Mamhilad Park Estate and the town's smaller units, where airborne dust and vapour are captured before they settle.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Pontypool cabinet shops and joinery works, where hardwood and MDF dust is drawn off at the tool before it reaches the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Gilchrist Thomas Industrial Estate and Mamhilad units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Pontypool bodyshops. Two-pack paints release isocyanates - the leading cause of occupational asthma - so booth airflow is examined against its design figure.
Fume-cupboard face-velocity testing for the colleges, testing houses and technical units around the town, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Pontypool
We are out under Pontypool's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A refurbished engineering shop in Pontypool had the extraction on its CNC machines failing to pull, down to a partly blocked filter on the oil-mist unit. We measured face and capture velocities, ran smoke tests at each point and inspected the fan and filter. One point failed at first on a loose joint and passed after remedial work, backed by full test documentation. The supervisor booked a regular six-monthly visit on the spot.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Pontypool 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 Mamhilad Park 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 Pontypool 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
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.
Across most Pontypool sites - the Mamhilad Park Estate 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 Pontypool 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 Pontypool duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Gilchrist Thomas 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 - the industrial estates and workshops around Mamhilad Park Estate and Gilchrist Thomas Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Torfaen.
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 Mamhilad Park Estate or a smaller Pontypool workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Mamhilad Park Estate units, term-time access at the Pontypool university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Pontypool, but a Mamhilad Park Estate fabrication shop and a Commercial Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Pontypool 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 Mamhilad Park Estate production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Local knowledge
Under John Hanbury the Pontypool ironworks became one of the earliest in Wales, and in the early 1720s the town produced tinplate on a commercial scale for the first time in Britain, with Hanbury's agent Thomas Cooke credited with the rolling mill that made it possible. That precision-metal trade still runs through the town's engineering and fabrication shops, 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 the regulations set, so the extraction reads true against its design figures. The evidence is written up plainly, plant by plant.
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