Sutton Coldfield · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Sutton Coldfield workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Sutton Coldfield
Sutton Coldfield is a royal town of around 96,000 in the north-east of Birmingham, best known for Sutton Park, one of the largest urban parks in Europe.
It is a largely residential and retail town, so the LEV work runs to light engineering and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the dental, veterinary and school labs - with the heavier fabrication and finishing on the Minworth and Reddicap estates at the eastern edge.
Every one of those Sutton Coldfield processes puts fume, dust, mist or vapour into the air, and COSHH requires it controlled at source - which means local exhaust ventilation, thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months. We test the LEV across all of it - from the Minworth units to the smaller Sutton Coldfield workshops - with capture and face-velocity readings, a clear pass or remedial outcome and system labelling.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Sutton Coldfield and across West Midlands it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Grinding, machining and fume extraction across the light-engineering and fabrication units on the Minworth estates, where metal dust and mist need capture at source.
Resin, styrene and dust extraction on the composite and fibreglass lines, where vapour and dust need capture proven.
Grinding-dust and fume extraction at the dental and prosthetics labs, where cobalt-chromium and acrylic dust need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Minworth and Reddicap units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Sutton Coldfield 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 colleges and Good Hope Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Sutton Coldfield
We are out under Sutton Coldfield's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A dental prosthetic manufacturing lab in Sutton Coldfield had its bench-mounted micro-extraction pods showing weak containment - technicians had blocked the exhaust grilles with plaster casting moulds. We removed the moulds, showed the staff the correct workspace layout and measured the capture velocities at the grinding wheels. It failed with the obstructions in place and passed cleanly once the grilles were clear, with airflow at 0.65 metres per second. The lab worked with cobalt-chromium alloys, so we cross-referenced the workplace exposure limits carefully while logging the data.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Sutton Coldfield system it has to answer three things - whether the system is sound, whether it still draws at the hood, and whether that draw holds to what it was designed to deliver.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Minworth 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 Sutton Coldfield line.
Where exposure is in question - a light engineering and fabrication 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.
Across most Sutton Coldfield sites - the Minworth 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 Sutton Coldfield 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 Sutton Coldfield duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Reddicap 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 light engineering and fabrication bay, a composites and fibreglass bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Sutton Coldfield 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.
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 Minworth unit will ask to see.
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 Sutton Coldfield, but a Minworth fabrication shop and a Boldmere Road canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Minworth and Reddicap, the university and hospital labs, and the wider West Midlands.
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 Minworth or a smaller Sutton Coldfield workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Minworth 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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