LEV Testing · Ulverston
From the bakery and engineering units on the North Lonsdale Road estate to the joineries and bodyshops about the town, Ulverston workplaces raise fume, mist and dust that the law says must be controlled - and the control proven by a thorough examination and test.
Ulverston has been a working town since its ironworks days, and it still is. Its industry gathers down the North Lonsdale Road estate by the canal - where a commercial bakery, engineering and food units sit alongside the pharmaceutical works and the finishing trades that serve Furness. Every one of them raises something a worker should not breathe - flour and grain dust, weld fume, oil mist, wood dust or solvent.
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 commercial bakery on the North Lonsdale Road estate, the extraction over the flour silo intake and the mixing room had lost draw and flour dust was settling where it should have been captured. We measured capture at the silo and mixing points, checked the ducting and the filter, and found the fan below duty and a choked take-off - flour dust being an explosion risk as much as a health one. We set out the remedial action, and re-tested to confirm the control before certifying.
At an Ulverston joinery the dust extraction served several machines off one system, and the run to the furthest machine 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 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 North Lonsdale Road estate and the town's units, and across Ulverston and the wider Cumbria.
No - any LEV: welding fume arms, wood and grain dust systems, spray booths, mist extraction, fume cupboards, and dental and salon extraction all fall under the same duty and the same clock.
Ulverston's canal - dug in 1796 and reckoned the shortest, deepest and straightest in England - was cut to carry the town's iron and ore to the sea, and its banks still hold the works and yards that grew from that trade. That industrial instinct fills the town's bakery, engineering and finishing shops today, and every one carries a duty to control the dust, fume and mist 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 Cumbria 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 Cumbria.
