Rayleigh · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Rayleigh workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Rayleigh
Rayleigh is a market and commuter town of around 32,000 people in south-east Essex, set on a hill between Chelmsford and Southend-on-Sea. Its greatest claim is Rayleigh Mount, the earthwork remains of a Norman motte-and-bailey castle raised by Sweyn, Sheriff of Essex - the only castle in the whole county recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086.
Its working economy runs on precision engineering, food production and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the units off Rawreth Lane at the Rawreth Industrial Estate and along the Brook Road Industrial Estate.
Every Rayleigh process that gives off fume, dust, mist or vapour falls under COSHH, which requires the contamination held at source by local exhaust ventilation and that LEV thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test right across the site, from the Rawreth Industrial Estate plant to the single-bench Rayleigh units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
Any system that draws fume, dust, mist or vapour off at source counts as LEV, and across Rayleigh and the rest of Essex it is the evidence COSHH expects you to hold.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC lathes and machining centres across the Rawreth Industrial Estate and the general engineering and toolmaking shops that supply the wider south-Essex advanced-manufacturing cluster.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the bakeries, butchery and food units serving Rayleigh's High Street traders and the town's supermarkets and caterers.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at the cabinet shops and joinery works off Brook Road and Rawreth Lane, 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 Rawreth and Brook Road industrial units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Rayleigh 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 science rooms of The FitzWimarc School and Sweyne Park School and for local laboratory and workshop settings, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Rayleigh
We are out under Rayleigh's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A small joinery workshop in Rayleigh found the extraction on its saws wasn't pulling as it should, down to a partly blocked filter on the 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 once the remedial work was done, with full test documentation to follow. We slotted the job into a quiet Monday to suit the foreman.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Rayleigh system it has to establish three things - that the plant and ductwork are sound, that the hoods still capture, and that the capture still meets the figure the system was designed around.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Rawreth 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 Rayleigh 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.
For most Rayleigh sites - from the Rawreth Industrial Estate units to the smaller workshops - the fourteen-month clock is the one that bites: miss it and the system is non-compliant the day it lapses, whatever its condition. We examine, label each hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer will ask to see. If something fails, you get the reading, the cause and the fix - not just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Rayleigh 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 Rayleigh duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Brook Road 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.
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 Rawreth 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 - the industrial estates and workshops around Rawreth Industrial Estate and Brook Road Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Essex.
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 Rayleigh, but a Rawreth Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a High Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Rayleigh 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.
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 Rawreth Industrial Estate and Brook Road Industrial Estate and across the wider Essex.
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 Rawreth Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Local knowledge
The railway reached Rayleigh in 1889 and turned a quiet hilltop village into a busy market and commuter town on the line down to Southend-on-Sea. That growth built the engineering and fabrication shops that still fill the Rawreth Industrial Estate and Brook Road today, 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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