Pontypridd · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Pontypridd workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Pontypridd
Pontypridd stands at the meeting of the Rhondda and Taff rivers, the market town that was the gateway to the coal valleys and gave the world the Welsh national anthem, written here by Evan and James James in 1856. Its Old Bridge, William Edwards' single-span stone arch of 1756, was once the longest of its kind anywhere, and the town's name reaches far beyond its size.
Its working economy still runs on manufacturing, food production and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped on Treforest Industrial Estate - one of the oldest and largest industrial estates in Wales, established in 1936 - and the units at Upper Boat.
Wherever a Pontypridd 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 Treforest Industrial Estate units down to the smallest Pontypridd workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Pontypridd and the wider Rhondda Cynon Taf it is your evidence under COSHH.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC and machining lines across Treforest Industrial Estate, which grew from wartime works making everything from spark plugs to switchgear and still carries that engineering trade today.
Steam canopies, cooking fume and dust control in the food factories around Treforest and Upper Boat, from gelatine and ingredients manufacture to the bakeries and processing lines that feed the valleys.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Pontypridd cabinet shops and joinery works, where hardwood and MDF dust is captured at the tool before it reaches the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Treforest Industrial Estate and Upper Boat units. Since the HSE reclassification in 2019, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Pontypridd 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 University of South Wales science and engineering labs at Treforest and for local healthcare sites, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Pontypridd
We are out under Pontypridd's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A traditional welding bay in Pontypridd had its fume extraction pulling short of the mark, down to a fan not reaching its rated speed. We checked static pressure, cleared a loose joint and re-tested each point against benchmark. Capture came back within benchmark once the slipping belt was sorted, and we provided the certificate and readings for the file. We timed the job for the school holidays while the bay was quiet.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Pontypridd 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 Treforest 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 Pontypridd 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 Pontypridd sites - the Treforest Industrial 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 Pontypridd 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 Pontypridd duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Upper Boat 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.
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 Treforest Industrial Estate and Upper Boat and across the wider Rhondda Cynon Taf.
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 Treforest Industrial Estate or a smaller Pontypridd workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Pontypridd, but a Treforest Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Taff 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 Treforest 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. 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 Treforest Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Treforest Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Pontypridd university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Local knowledge
When the first sod was cut on Treforest Trading Estate in 1936, it was built to bring new work to a valley whose coal trade was falling away, and by the war years thousands were employed there making spark plugs, zips, switchgear and aircraft parts. That manufacturing instinct still runs through Pontypridd's engineering and food plants, 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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