Wednesbury · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for Wednesbury workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
Wednesbury
Wednesbury is a Black Country town in Sandwell, one of the historic Six Towns, named after the god Woden, with a steel-tube and metalworking heritage that earned it the name Tube Town.
The signature trade is metalworking - the steel-tube and section manufacture, the drop-forging and metal-pressing, and the logistics - across the Leabrook Road and Bilport Lane estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Every one of those Wednesbury 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 Leabrook Road units to the smaller Wednesbury 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 Wednesbury and across West Midlands it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Weld-fume, grinding and pickling-vapour extraction across the steel-tube and section units, the defining trade of Tube Town, where process fume and vapour need capture at source.
Fume, dust and heat extraction across the drop-forging and metal-pressing units, where process fume needs capture proven.
Battery-charging, weld-fume and paint extraction across the M6 distribution parks, where the maintenance bays need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Leabrook Road and Bilport Lane units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at Wednesbury 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 the Midland Metropolitan University Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in Wednesbury
We are out under Wednesbury's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A steel-tube fabrication works in Wednesbury had a weld-fume and drop-forge extraction hood over a finishing bay pulling weak because a branch damper had corroded part-shut. We freed the damper, re-ran the capture check at the bench and measured the branch flow. It failed at first on the low capture and passed once it was reset, the fume drawn cleanly off the work. Since the HSE reclassified all welding fume as carcinogenic in 2019, on-torch capture was checked alongside the hood.
The test
A statutory LEV test to HSG258 is far more than a look round. On a Wednesbury 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 Leabrook 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 a Wednesbury line.
Where exposure is in question - a steel-tube and section manufacture process, say - sampling confirms whether control is actually protecting the people at the process.
The duty
The duty is written into COSHH Regulation 9: where LEV controls a hazardous substance, the employer must have it thoroughly examined and tested at least every fourteen months and keep the records for five years.
For the great majority of Wednesbury sites, from the Leabrook 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 Wednesbury 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 Wednesbury duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Bilport Lane 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 steel-tube and section manufacture bay, a drop-forging and metal-pressing bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
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 Leabrook Road unit will ask to see.
Yes. A new spray booth or fume-arm install at a Wednesbury 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.
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 Leabrook Road production line we can usually fit the re-test around your shifts. We will not pass a system that does not control exposure.
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 Leabrook Road or a smaller Wednesbury workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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 Wednesbury, but a Leabrook Road fabrication shop and a Great Western Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes - the industrial estates and workshops around Leabrook Road and Bilport Lane, the university and hospital labs, and the wider West Midlands.
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