LEV Testing · Broadstairs
From the engineering and joinery units on the Pyson's Road estate to the bodyshops, salons and lab benches around the town, Broadstairs workplaces raise fume, mist and dust that the law says must be controlled - and the control proven by a thorough examination and test.
Broadstairs is the most intimate of Thanet's seaside towns, but behind the bays it works for a living. Its largest industrial area is the Pyson's Road estate, where engineering, joinery, fabrication and food-production units sit alongside the bodyshops, print and finishing trades that serve the town. Every one of them raises something a worker should not breathe - weld fume, wood dust, oil mist, solvent vapour or acrylic dust.
Local exhaust ventilation is what captures it at source, and the law does not take the control on trust. Under COSHH the extraction has to be thoroughly examined and tested at least every 14 months, measured against how it is used - not just switched on and assumed to work.
CNC and manual machining raises oil mist and metal dust at the enclosure and bench that has to be captured at source.
Flour, powders and steam need capture at the mixing and process points, from bakeries to production kitchens.
Saws, sanders and routers throw fine wood dust that has to be drawn off at the tool and the bench.
Weld fume and grinding dust need capture at the arm and booth, wherever steel is fabricated.
Bodyshop spray booths and prep bays carry paint mist and solvent vapour that the extraction has to hold and clear.
Fume cupboards, safety cabinets and dental and salon extraction all count as LEV and all fall due on the same clock.
Real jobs, described by sector and area - never by a client's name.
At a precision-engineering machine shop on the Pyson's Road estate, the mist extraction over the CNC line had dropped off and the fettling bench capture felt weak. We measured capture and face velocities at each point, checked the ducting and discharge, and found a fan running below duty and a blocked bench take-off. We set out the remedial action, and re-tested to confirm the control before certifying.
At a Broadstairs joinery the dust extraction served several machines off one system, and the run to the furthest saw had lost transport velocity. We measured at each hood, checked the ducting and the discharge, and reported exactly which take-off fell short and why - so it could be put right and re-tested rather than left to silt up.
Condition of hoods, ducting, filters and fan - the damage, blockage and wear that quietly drops performance.
Measured capture and face velocities at the working points, plus transport velocity and static pressure through the system.
The readings assessed against how the LEV should perform to actually control the exposure - not just whether the fan turns.
Where the process warrants it, sampling to confirm the control is keeping the substance out of the breathing zone.
The point of a thorough examination and test is to prove the extraction still controls the exposure - so we measure it, we do not eyeball it. Condition, capture and face velocities, transport velocity and static pressure are checked against the design intent under HSG258, and the result is written up and labelled on the plant.
We test to the HSE's guidance, HSG258, and the job ends in a report and a label on the plant: what was measured, what passed, what needs putting right, and the date the next test falls due.
We examine the condition of the hoods, ducting, filter and fan and how each is meant to control its process.
We measure capture and face velocities, transport velocity and static pressure at every key point.
The readings are judged against the design benchmark under HSG258, with a clear pass or fail on control.
The plant is labelled and you get the report and next-due date for your COSHH records.
At least every 14 months under COSHH Regulation 9 - and sooner for certain higher-risk processes. We set the right interval for what you run and put the next-due date on the label and the report.
A thorough-examination-and-test report against HSG258, a pass/fail on each point with any remedials listed, and a dated label on the plant showing when the next test falls due.
We set out exactly what failed and why - often a single reading such as static pressure or capture velocity - so it can be put right, and we re-test to confirm the control before certifying.
Yes - the Pyson's Road estate and the town's units, and across Broadstairs, Thanet and the wider Kent coast.
No - any LEV: welding fume arms, wood-dust systems, spray booths, mist extraction, fume cupboards, and dental and salon extraction all fall under the same duty and the same clock.
Broadstairs has engineering in its blood. Thomas Russell Crampton, born here in 1816, trained under Brunel and went on to design the Crampton locomotive, lay the first successful cross-Channel telegraph cable, and build the town's own waterworks and gasworks - his flint water tower still stands by the railway station as the Crampton Tower Museum. That instinct for careful, measured work still runs through the town's engineering and finishing shops, and every one of them carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws off - and to prove it.
We have carried out LEV thorough examination and testing to HSG258 since 2001, across Kent and the UK. From a machine shop to a joinery, a spray booth or a lab fume cupboard, the job ends the same way: measured readings, a clear verdict, and a label whose next-due date you can rely on.
Tell us what you run and we will examine, measure, report and label it to HSG258 - across Kent.
