West Bromwich · COSHH / HSG258
Statutory thorough examination and testing of local exhaust ventilation for West Bromwich workshops and production sites, keeping fume and dust control compliant with COSHH and HSE guidance HSG258.
West Bromwich
West Bromwich is the largest of Sandwell's six Black Country towns, in a borough of around 342,000, home to West Bromwich Albion and the Hawthorns, the highest league ground in England.
The signature trade is metalworking - the Black Country metal-bashing of springs, castings, drop forging and foundries - alongside automotive components and engineering, across the Kenrick Way and Hill Top Industrial Estate estates, with the bodyshops between them.
Each of those West Bromwich 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 Kenrick Way units to the one-bench West Bromwich 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 West Bromwich and across West Midlands it stands as their COSHH evidence.
Fume and grinding extraction across the forging, casting and drop-forging trades, the Black Country metal-bashing heritage, where heavy metal fume and dust need capture at source.
Machining, grinding and weld-fume extraction across the automotive-component and engineering units, where metal dust and fume need capture proven.
VOC and particulate extraction on the plastics and moulding lines, where melt fume and dust need capture at source.
On-torch extraction, fume arms and downdraught benches across the Kenrick Way and Hill Top Industrial Estate units. Since the HSE's 2019 reclassification, all welding fume - mild steel included - is treated as carcinogenic.
Spray-booth and prep-bay extraction at West Bromwich 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 Sandwell College and Sandwell General Hospital, to the containment their work demands.
On the ground in West Bromwich
We are out under West Bromwich's extraction every week. The proof that matters is the jobs, not a stock photo.
A metal-plating and anodising facility in West Bromwich had the lateral lip extraction slots over a hot acid cleaning tank partly blocked with hardened chemical salt crystals. We scraped the crusting off the slot margins and measured the intake velocities at 200mm intervals. It failed at first on the occlusion and passed once cleaned, with uniform capture restored across the tank lip. The corrosive atmosphere meant rinsing the stainless anemometer probes with deionised water straight after use.
The test
Under HSG258 a statutory LEV test is no visual once-over. For a West Bromwich 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 Kenrick Way 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 West Bromwich line.
Where exposure is in question - a metalworking and forging 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 the great majority of West Bromwich sites, from the Kenrick Way 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 West Bromwich 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 West Bromwich duty-holder.
Each system tagged with status and next-due date, so compliance is visible on the Hill Top 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. A metalworking and forging bay, an automotive components and engineering bench and a lab fume cupboard can each sit on a different interval - we set the right one for every system.
Metalworking and forging, automotive components and engineering, plastics, welding and fabrication, vehicle body and paint, and the labs of the college and hospital - the trades clustered around Kenrick Way and Hill Top Industrial Estate and across the wider West Midlands.
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 West Bromwich, but a Kenrick Way fabrication shop and a High Street canopy are kept as the separate jobs they are.
Yes. We plan testing around production shifts at the Kenrick Way units, term-time access at the West Bromwich university labs, and normal hours at smaller workshops, so the examination never stops the line.
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 Kenrick Way 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 Kenrick Way 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 Kenrick Way or a smaller West Bromwich workshop needs for their COSHH file.
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