LEV Testing · Knaresborough
From the workshops on Manse Lane to the labs, joineries and bodyshops around the town, Knaresborough workplaces raise fume, mist and dust that the law says must be controlled - and the control proven by a thorough examination and test.
Knaresborough is a visitor town, but it works for a living too. Its industry gathers on the Manse Lane estate east of the centre, where engineering, joinery and testing units sit alongside the bodyshops and finishing trades that serve the area. Every one of them raises something a worker should not breathe - weld fume, wood dust, oil mist, solvent vapour or laboratory reagents.
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 testing and analysis laboratory on the Manse Lane estate, the control at the fume cabinets over the prep bench had dropped off, the extraction hampered by a slipping fan drive belt. We ran face-velocity and containment tests across the cabinets, cleared the debris sitting in the ducting and re-checked everything. One point failed on velocity; we set out the fix and re-tested to confirm the control before certifying.
At a Knaresborough 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.
A thorough examination and test under COSHH is a real assessment, not a rubber stamp. It is a structured examination of the system's condition, measurement of its actual performance, and an assessment of those readings against how the system should perform to control the exposure. It follows the HSE's guidance, HSG258, and ends in a report and a label.
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 hoods, ducting, filter and fan and identify how each is meant to control its process.
We record capture and face velocities, transport velocity and static pressure at every key point.
The readings are assessed against the design intent under HSG258, with a clear verdict on control.
The plant is labelled with the result and next-due date, and you get the report for the COSHH file.
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 Manse Lane estate and the town's units, and across Knaresborough, Harrogate and the wider North Yorkshire.
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.
Above the town the pledge stone and the ruined castle look down on a place that has drawn careful, exacting visitors since Mother Shipton's cave opened to the curious in 1630 - England's oldest paid tourist attraction. That same care runs through the town's workshops and labs today, and every one of them carries a duty to control the mist, fume and dust its work throws off - and to prove it with a measured test.
We have carried out LEV thorough examination and testing to HSG258 since 2001, across North Yorkshire 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 North Yorkshire.
