Tipton · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Tipton workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Tipton
Tipton sits at the heart of the Black Country in the borough of Sandwell, a town whose dense web of canals once earned it the name the Venice of the Midlands. It was here, at the Conygre Coalworks off Bloomfield Road, that Thomas Newcomen erected the world's first successful atmospheric steam engine in 1712, the machine that set the whole Industrial Revolution in motion.
That engineering instinct still runs through the town's working economy, in the precision, fabrication and food trades grouped in the industrial units at Great Bridge Industrial Estate and Bloomfield Park.
Each of those Tipton 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 Great Bridge Industrial Estate units to the one-bench Tipton workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
If a process captures fume, dust, mist or vapour at source, that capture system is LEV - and across Tipton and the wider West Midlands it is your evidence under COSHH.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres and turning shops across the Great Bridge and Bloomfield units, heirs to the machine-tool and casting trades that Tipton built on coal and iron.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control in the bakeries and food units of the Great Bridge and Dudley Port estates, where dust and vapour have to be captured at source.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Tipton cabinet shops and joinery works, where hardwood and MDF dust is drawn off at the tool before it reaches the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the town's metal-bashing units at Great Bridge and Horseley Heath. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Tipton bodyshops along the Dudley Port and Great Bridge corridors. 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 local colleges, technical training rooms and school science departments across Sandwell, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Tipton
We are out under Tipton's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
An independent dental laboratory in Tipton had its bench extract nozzles under-performing against benchmark, with a leaking flexible connection at fault. We ran velocity and smoke tests across the nozzles, then sorted the worn impeller before re-checking each point. The system met control standards once the loose joint was cleared, backed by a signed HSG258 report. We worked outside trading hours so the laboratory could open as normal.
The test
An HSG258 statutory LEV test goes well beyond a walk-round look. On a Tipton 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 Great Bridge 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 Tipton line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and manufacturing 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.
For most Tipton sites - from the Great Bridge Industrial Estate units to the smaller workshops - the fourteen-month clock is the one that bites: miss it and the system is non-compliant the day it lapses, whatever its condition. We examine, label each hood with its status and next-due date, and issue the report an HSE inspector or your insurer will ask to see. If something fails, you get the reading, the cause and the fix - not just a red sticker.
How it runs
Full visual and structural check of every hood, duct run, filter and fan across the Tipton 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 Tipton duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Bloomfield 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 precision engineering and manufacturing bay, a food and drink production 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 Tipton 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.
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 Tipton, but a Great Bridge Industrial Estate fabrication shop and an Owen Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
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 Great Bridge Industrial Estate or a smaller Tipton workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Great Bridge Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
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 Great Bridge 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. We plan testing around production shifts at the Great Bridge Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Tipton university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
Local knowledge
In 1712 Thomas Newcomen and John Calley raised the first commercially successful steam engine at the Conygre Coalworks off Bloomfield Road, pumping water from the pits that sat above Tipton's famous Thick Coal - the thirty-foot seam that made this the richest coalfield in the country. From that seam came the coal and iron that fed generations of Tipton machine shops and forges. Every one of them carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws off. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation to the standard COSHH sets, so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.