Sutton-in-Ashfield · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Sutton-in-Ashfield workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Sutton-in-Ashfield
Sutton-in-Ashfield is a Nottinghamshire town in Ashfield, around 40,000, a framework-knitting and hosiery town on the edge of the coalfield, home to King's Mill Hospital.
The signature trade is logistics and manufacturing - the M1 distribution, the advanced manufacturing and engineering, and the hosiery and textile heritage - across the Fulwood Industrial Estate and Castlewood estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Wherever a Sutton-in-Ashfield 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 Fulwood Industrial Estate units down to the smallest Sutton-in-Ashfield workshop, measuring capture and face velocity and issuing a plain pass-or-remedial result with every hood tagged.
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-in-Ashfield and across Nottinghamshire it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Battery-charging, weld-fume and paint extraction across the M1 Junction 28 distribution parks, where the maintenance and fabrication bays need capture at source.
Machining, grinding and fume extraction across the advanced-manufacturing and engineering units, where metal dust and mist need capture proven.
Fibre-dust, dye-vapour and mist extraction across the hosiery and textile units of the framework-knitting heritage, where fine fibre and vapour need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Fulwood Industrial Estate and Castlewood 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 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 King's Mill Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Sutton-in-Ashfield
We are out under Sutton-in-Ashfield's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A distribution centre in Sutton-in-Ashfield had a battery-charging bay with the overhead hydrogen-vent extraction running weak because a flexible connector had pulled off the trunking above the racks. We reconnected the ducting, ran a smoke test over the charging shelves and measured the extract rate at the roof. It failed on the disconnected run and passed once resealed, the vent flow back above the design figure. The bay ran a large fleet of trucks off the M1, so we cordoned the aisle and worked to the site traffic plan.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a Sutton-in-Ashfield 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 Fulwood 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 Sutton-in-Ashfield line.
Where exposure is in question - a logistics and distribution 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 Sutton-in-Ashfield sites, from the Fulwood 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 Sutton-in-Ashfield 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-in-Ashfield duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Castlewood Business 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 logistics and distribution 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.
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 Fulwood 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.
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-in-Ashfield, but a Fulwood Industrial Estate fabrication shop and an Idlewells 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 Fulwood Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Sutton-in-Ashfield 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. We plan testing around production shifts at the Fulwood Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Sutton-in-Ashfield university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Fulwood Industrial Estate or a smaller Sutton-in-Ashfield workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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