Rugby · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Rugby workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Rugby
Rugby is a Warwickshire town of around 78,000, the birthplace of the game of rugby football and the place where Frank Whittle first ran the jet engine.
The work is engineering and logistics - the heavy and electrical engineering of the BTH and turbine heritage, the cement and minerals, and the distribution of the golden triangle - across the Somers Road and Swift Valley estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every Rugby 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 Somers Road plant to the single-bench Rugby units, logging capture and face-velocity figures and returning a clear pass-or-remedial outcome with each hood identified and labelled.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Rugby employers and others across Warwickshire it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Machining, grinding and weld-fume extraction across the engineering and manufacturing units, a trade rooted in Rugby's turbine and electrical-engineering heritage, where metal dust and fume need capture at source.
Dust and kiln-fume extraction across the cement and minerals plant, where mineral dust needs capture proven.
Battery-charging, weld-fume and paint extraction across the golden-triangle distribution parks, where the maintenance bays need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Somers Road and Swift Valley units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Rugby 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 Rugby College and the Hospital of St Cross, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Rugby
We are out under Rugby's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A heavy engineering foundry in Rugby had a main overhead branch duct that had collapsed inwards under excessive vacuum pressure. We ran thorough airflow checks on the remaining operational branches and logged the structural failure. It failed on the collapse, and we handed the technical specifications to a duct-replacement contractor to complete the run. Active heavy casting was going on around us, so heat-reflective safety jackets were worn.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Rugby system it answers three things: is the system intact, does it still capture, and does that capture match what it was designed to do.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Somers Road 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 Rugby line.
Where exposure is in question - an engineering and manufacturing process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
The duty is written into COSHH Regulation 9: where LEV controls a hazardous substance, the employer must have it thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months and keep the records for five years.
For the great majority of Rugby sites, from the Somers Road 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 Rugby 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 Rugby duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Swift Valley 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. An engineering and manufacturing bay, a cement and minerals 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 Somers Road 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 Somers Road and Swift Valley Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Warwickshire.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Rugby 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.
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 Rugby, but a Somers Road fabrication shop and a Sheep Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Somers Road unit will ask to see.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Somers Road units, term-time access at the Rugby university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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