Stafford · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Stafford workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Stafford
Stafford is the county town of Staffordshire, around 72,000, on the River Sow, with a Norman castle and a long electrical-engineering heritage.
The signature work is electrical and power engineering - the transformer and HVDC manufacturing of the GEC and English Electric heritage - alongside advanced manufacturing and food, across the Redhill Business Park and Tollgate Industrial Estate, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those Stafford 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 Redhill Business Park units to the one-bench Stafford workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
A system that catches fume, dust, mist or vapour at the point it is released is LEV, and for Stafford employers and others across Staffordshire it is the record COSHH looks for first.
Weld-fume, machining-mist and coating extraction across the transformer and HVDC manufacturing lines, a trade rooted in Stafford's electrical-engineering heritage, where metal fume and vapour need capture at source.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction across the advanced-manufacturing and engineering units, where metal dust and mist need capture proven.
Steam, dust and mist extraction across the food producers, where organic dust is both a health and a combustion risk.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Redhill Business Park and Tollgate Industrial Estate units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Stafford 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 Staffordshire Stafford campus and County Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Stafford
We are out under Stafford's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A joinery workshop in Stafford had the main woodwaste extraction fan motor burnt out and seized before we arrived. We ran static-pressure checks across all the hoods and completed an electrical safety inspection on the isolator. It failed on the fan-motor failure, and we referred the client to an electrical contractor for a full motor replacement. The workshop was at peak capacity on high-end bespoke oak staircase commissions.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Stafford 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 Redhill Business Park 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 Stafford line.
Where exposure is in question - an electrical and power engineering 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 the great majority of Stafford sites, from the Redhill Business Park 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 Stafford 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 Stafford duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Tollgate 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 electrical and power engineering bay, an advanced manufacturing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Electrical and power engineering, advanced manufacturing, food manufacturing, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the university campus and hospital - the trades clustered around Redhill Business Park and Tollgate Industrial Estate and across the wider Staffordshire.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Redhill Business Park and Tollgate Industrial Estate, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Staffordshire.
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 Redhill Business Park unit will ask to see.
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 Redhill Business Park or a smaller Stafford workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Stafford 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 Redhill Business Park production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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