Rushden · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Rushden workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Rushden
Rushden is a town of around 32,000 in Northamptonshire, the historic boot-and-shoe manufacturing centre now anchored by the major Rushden Lakes retail and leisure destination beside the River Nene.
The signature trade is footwear and logistics - the footwear and leather manufacturing, the advanced manufacturing and engineering, and the logistics and food manufacturing - across the Sanders Lodge Industrial Estate and Crown Park estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Rushden processes throws fume, dust, mist or vapour into the workplace air, and COSHH demands it is captured at source - that capture system is local exhaust ventilation, and it must be thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We cover the lot, from the Sanders Lodge Industrial Estate units to the one-bench Rushden workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Rushden and across Northamptonshire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Adhesive-vapour, finishing-spray and leather-dust extraction across the Goodyear-welted shoe and leather lines that survive from the boot-and-shoe heritage, where solvent adhesives and fine dust need capture at source.
Weld-fume, grinding-dust and machining-swarf extraction across the engineering and plant-manufacturing units, where metal fume and dust need capture proven.
Battery-charging, forklift-exhaust and wash-down-mist extraction across the A45 parcel and produce-packing units, where the charging bays and packing halls each need their own capture.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Sanders Lodge Industrial Estate and Crown Park units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Rushden 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 local college and Kettering General Hospital nearby, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Rushden
We are out under Rushden's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A footwear factory in Rushden had a solvent-and-dust extraction over an adhesive-and-finishing bench pulling weak, letting adhesive vapour and leather dust drift into the workspace. We measured the capture at the bench and checked the ducting and fan for losses. It failed on the low capture and the vapour breakthrough, and we specified the remedial work. The bench ran solvent adhesives, so the vapour monitoring backed up the airflow test.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Rushden system it settles three questions: is the ductwork and plant intact, does it still capture at the hood, and does that capture still match the design.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Sanders Lodge 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 Rushden line.
Where exposure is in question - a footwear and leather 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.
For the great majority of Rushden sites, from the Sanders Lodge Industrial Estate 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 Rushden 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 Rushden duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Crown Park 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 footwear and leather manufacturing bay, an advanced manufacturing and engineering bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Sanders Lodge Industrial Estate or a smaller Rushden workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Sanders Lodge Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Rushden university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Sanders Lodge 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 Sanders Lodge Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Sanders Lodge Industrial Estate and Crown Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Northamptonshire.
Footwear and leather manufacturing, advanced manufacturing and engineering, logistics and food manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Sanders Lodge Industrial Estate and Crown Park and across the wider Northamptonshire.
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