Ulverston · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Ulverston workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Ulverston
Ulverston is the Furness peninsula's last surviving market town, a Georgian settlement of around 11,200 people crowned by the Hoad Monument, a 100-foot replica of the Eddystone lighthouse raised in 1850.
The town's working economy runs on precision engineering and light manufacturing - high-voltage switchgear at Acrastyle and subsea connectors at OTAQ - clustered along the North Lonsdale Road corridor and the Lightburn Industrial Estate, a legacy of the ironworks and pharmaceutical plants that once lined the canalside.
Each of those Ulverston 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 North Lonsdale Road units to the one-bench Ulverston workshops, taking capture and face-velocity readings and leaving a clear pass or remedial verdict with the hoods labelled.
By sector
Where fume, dust, mist or vapour is pulled away at the point it is made, that is LEV - and for employers in Ulverston and across Cumbria it stands as their COSHH evidence.
High-voltage substation protection and control at Acrastyle on North Lonsdale Road, where soldering, conformal coating and test bays need extraction capturing flux fume and solvent vapour at source.
OTAQ manufactures underwater connectors and communication systems in the town - resin potting, epoxy work and hand soldering that put operators over solvent and flux fume without good local capture.
Ulverston's bakeries, breweries and food units carry flour-dust and steam loads that clog canopy filters and general ventilation, so extraction is tested to hold the air within workplace exposure limits.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the North Lonsdale Road and Lightburn units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Ulverston 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 Furness College and Furness General Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Ulverston
We are out under Ulverston's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A nail bar in Ulverston had the capture velocity at some of its station downdraught nozzles drop below benchmark, with a worn fan impeller. We measured face and capture velocities, ran smoke tests at each station and inspected the fan and filter. One nozzle failed at first and passed after the remedial work, and we issued a signed report. Acrylic dust and solvent vapour are the hazard here, so each station was proven at the bench.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On an Ulverston 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 North Lonsdale 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 an Ulverston line.
Where exposure is in question - an engineering and switchgear 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 Ulverston sites, from the North Lonsdale Road 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 Ulverston 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 Ulverston duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Lightburn Industrial Estate 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 engineering and switchgear bay, a subsea 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 North Lonsdale Road 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 North Lonsdale Road units, term-time access at the Ulverston 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 North Lonsdale Road or a smaller Ulverston 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 North Lonsdale Road 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 Ulverston, but a North Lonsdale Road fabrication shop and a Market Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at an Ulverston 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.
Local knowledge
Ulverston Canal opened in 1796 - at 15 feet deep and 66 feet wide, once called the shortest, widest and deepest in England - and drew ironworks and, from 1948, a pharmaceutical plant to its western bank. That plant, latterly GSK, has since wound down, and its site passed to BAE Systems in 2025. The engineering that grew up alongside it survives, and every soldering bench, coating line and test bay needs local exhaust ventilation proven to draw fume clear of the operator.
Phoenix Duct Clean · by the numbers
Stay compliant with COSHH and HSG258. No-obligation quote, UK-wide.