Tiverton · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Tiverton workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Tiverton
Tiverton stands where the Exe meets the Lowman in the heart of mid Devon, a market town whose fortune was made twice over - first on the medieval wool and kersey cloth trade, and then in 1816 when John Heathcoat moved his bobbinet lace works here after Luddites smashed his machinery at Loughborough. Heathcoat Fabrics still runs on the same Westexe site two centuries on, weaving technical textiles and parachute fabrics for the world.
Beyond the mill, the town's working economy runs on precision manufacturing, food and the fabrication trades, much of it grouped in the units at Howden Industrial Estate and Tiverton Business Park off the Lower Moor Way approach.
Each of those Tiverton 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 Howden Industrial Estate units to the one-bench Tiverton 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 Tiverton and the wider Devon it is your evidence under COSHH.
Oil-mist and coolant-mist extraction on CNC machining centres, and process dust and fibre capture at Heathcoat Fabrics, whose Westexe works spins and finishes high-performance yarns and parachute fabrics for aerospace and defence.
Steam canopies and flour-dust control across the bakeries, dairies and food producers that mid Devon's farming country feeds, where extraction keeps airborne dust and vapour off the line.
Fine-dust extraction and downdraught tables at Tiverton cabinet shops and joinery works on the Howden estate, where hardwood and MDF dust is captured at the tool before it reaches the lungs.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Howden Industrial Estate and Tiverton Business Park units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Tiverton 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 textile and materials laboratories at Heathcoat Fabrics, the college teaching labs and Tiverton and District Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Tiverton
We are out under Tiverton's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
Capture velocity at some of the saw and sander hoods in an independent joinery workshop in Tiverton had slipped below benchmark, with a worn fan impeller to blame. We took benchmark readings, watched the capture at each hood with smoke and cleared the debris sitting in the ducting. Once the tired filter was replaced every point passed on re-test, and the readings and report went into their file. We worked it over two evenings after closing so the bench work never stopped.
The test
A statutory LEV test under HSG258 is not a visual once-over. On a Tiverton system it answers three things: is the system intact, does it still capture, and does that capture match what it was designed to do.
Ductwork, hoods, filters, fans and dampers checked for damage, blockage and leakage across the Howden 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 Tiverton line.
Where exposure is in question - a precision engineering and technical textiles process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
COSHH Regulation 9 makes it plain: any LEV controlling exposure to a hazardous substance has to be thoroughly examined and tested at intervals no greater than fourteen months, and the resulting records kept for at least five years.
For most Tiverton sites - from the Howden 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 Tiverton 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 Tiverton duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Tiverton 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 precision engineering and technical textiles 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.
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 Tiverton, but a Howden Industrial Estate fabrication shop and a Gold Street 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 Howden Industrial Estate unit will ask to see.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Tiverton 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 - the industrial estates and workshops around Howden Industrial Estate and Tiverton Business Park, the university and hospital labs, and the wider Devon.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Howden Industrial Estate units, term-time access at the Tiverton university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
precision engineering and technical textiles, food and drink production, woodworking and joinery, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and laboratory fume cupboards - the trades clustered around Howden Industrial Estate and Tiverton Business Park and across the wider Devon.
Local knowledge
John Heathcoat bought an old woollen mill on the Exe in 1815 and moved his entire lace-making operation to Tiverton the following year, after Luddites in the pay of Nottingham lacemakers destroyed his machines at Loughborough. Two centuries on, Heathcoat Fabrics still works the Westexe site, now weaving technical textiles and parachute fabrics rather than lace. That manufacturing instinct still runs through the town's machine shops and process plants, and every one carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws off. We test and certify local exhaust ventilation so the extraction reads true against its design figures.
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