Stevenage · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Stevenage workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Stevenage
Stevenage is Britain's first post-war new town, a Hertfordshire town of around 94,000 and a major UK space and aerospace hub.
The signature work is aerospace and space - the satellite and missile engineering, where the ExoMars rover was built - alongside advanced manufacturing and electronics and life-science labs, across the Gunnels Wood Road and Caxton Way estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Wherever a Stevenage 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 Gunnels Wood Road units down to the smallest Stevenage 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 Stevenage and the wider Hertfordshire it is your evidence under COSHH.
Solder-fume, solvent and coating extraction across the satellite, missile and space-engineering lines, where fume and vapour need capture at source.
Machining, solder-fume and grinding extraction across the advanced-manufacturing and electronics units, where metal dust and fume need capture proven.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction across the precision-engineering units, where metal dust and mist need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Gunnels Wood Road and Caxton Way units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Stevenage 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 Stevenage Bioscience labs, North Hertfordshire College and Lister Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Stevenage
We are out under Stevenage's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An aerospace electronics plant in Stevenage had a solvent-extraction canopy over a degreasing tank running low on flow because the blast-gate damper positioner had failed. We recalibrated the pneumatic damper actuator, checked the line pressure and measured the face-capture velocities with a hot-wire anemometer. It passed once calibrated, holding 0.55 metres per second for full VOC containment. It was a high-security cleanroom, so anti-static overshoes, grounding wrist straps and full hair and beard covers were worn.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Stevenage 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 Gunnels Wood 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 Stevenage line.
Where exposure is in question - an aerospace, defence and space process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 puts a hard duty on the employer: any LEV controlling a hazardous substance must have a thorough examination and test at least every fourteen months, with records kept for five years.
Across most Stevenage sites - the Gunnels Wood Road 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 Stevenage 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 Stevenage duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Caxton Way 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 aerospace, defence and space bay, an advanced manufacturing and electronics 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 Gunnels Wood Road production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
Aerospace, defence and space, advanced manufacturing and electronics, precision engineering, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the life-science labs of the bioscience campus, college and hospital - the trades clustered around Gunnels Wood Road and Caxton Way and across the wider Hertfordshire.
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 Gunnels Wood Road or a smaller Stevenage workshop needs for their COSHH file.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Gunnels Wood Road and Caxton Way, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Hertfordshire.
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 Stevenage, but a Gunnels Wood Road fabrication shop and a Queensway 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 Gunnels Wood Road unit will ask to see.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
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