CLA-2 CO:R:C:M 089808 MBR
Mr. Robert E. Burke
Barnes, Richardson & Colburn
200 East Randolph Drive
Chicago, IL 60601
RE: Purup North America; ImageMaker; Typesetting Machinery,
Apparatus And Equipment; Graphics and Lettering Composing
System; Laser Imagesetters; Raster Image Processor (RIP);
Incomplete; Imported Without Automatic Data Processing
Equipment
Dear Mr. Burke:
This is in response to your letter dated June 25, 1991,
requesting a classification ruling on behalf of Purup North
America, regarding the "ImageMaker," under the Harmonized Tariff
Schedule of the United States Annotated (HTSUSA).
FACTS:
The Imagemaker is a high-technology device used for the
production of texts, forms, and illustrations that are used in
professional printing. It consists of a laser imagesetter with a
dedicated computer control console, and a Post Script-Link Raster
Image Processor (PS-Link RIP). A freely programmable Apple
Macintosh personal computer is the front end of the system,
through which copy enters the system. The Apple PC is not
imported with the system. The Apple PC will utilize "PostScript"
software that outputs the input copy as a mathematically
described printed page.
The RIP translates the "PostScript" output into its smallest
elements, which are a series of "ons" and "offs" that create a
raster or bit map. The PS-Link accelerates this translation.
The rasters are then communicated to the laser imagesetter via
the console, which then instructs the laser when to expose a
given photo-sensitive surface. The Imagemaker system provides
output on photo sensitized film, paper, and polyester plates.
Your product literature states that the ImageMaker "allows
precise output of line art, text and halftone 4-color images at
-2-
1,270 or 2,540 dpi." Dot size can be as small as 13 microns.
The ImageMaker comes with either an argon-ion laser or a laser
diode.
ISSUES:
Is the Purup ImageMaker, consisting of a laser imagesetter
with a dedicated computer control console and a PostScript-Link
Raster Image Processor, imported without the requisite Apple PC,
classified as machinery, apparatus and equipment for typesetting
in Heading 8442?
LAW AND ANALYSIS:
The General Rules of Interpretation (GRI's) to the HTSUSA
govern the classification of goods in the tariff schedule. GRI 1
provides, in pertinent part:
...classification shall be determined according to the terms
of the headings and any relative section or chapter notes...
Heading 8442, HTSUSA, in part describes machinery, equipment
and apparatus for typesetting. The Harmonized Commodity
Description and Coding System Explanatory Notes (ENs) to Heading
8442, HTSUSA, p. 1234, provide that the heading covers machines
"...used to assemble (compose or set) it [(type)] for use in
printing, whether by hand or mechanically..." and "...includes
composing machines using a laser beam projected onto photographic
film." The Explanatory Notes, p. 1237, provide that Heading
8442 "...covers only phototype-setting or composing machines
which actually set type even if the type is photographed after it
has been set" (emphasis in original).
The classification of the Purup graphics and lettering
composing system, and all its system components entered
separately, except the scanner and imagesetter, was determined in
Headquarters Ruling Letter HQ 086122, dated January 17, 1991.
The classification of a scanner and imagesetter entered
separately will be determined in a subsequent ruling under HQ
088459.
An ImageMaker system consisting of a Purup laser imagesetter
with a dedicated computer control console and a PS-Link RIP,
perform the function of phototypesetting or composing. Chapter
84, Legal Note 5, provides in part, that machines incorporating
or working in conjunction with automatic data processing machines
and performing a specific function are classified in the heading
appropriate to their respective functions. The laser imagesetter
and PS-Link RIP have no other utility than the performance of
the specific function of phototypesetting or composing, a
function described by Heading 8442, HTSUSA.
-3-
GRI 2.(a) provides, in pertinent part, that: "[a]ny
reference in a heading to an article shall be taken to include a
reference to that article incomplete or unfinished, provided
that, as entered, the incomplete or unfinished article has the
essential character of the complete or finished article."
The ImageMaker system, consisting of the laser imagesetter
with a dedicated computer control console and the PS-Link RIP,
has the essential character of the complete phototypesetting and
composing machine, even though it requires the subsequent
addition of a general purpose Apple Macintosh personal computer
and PostScript software.
It should be noted that the use of the instant merchandise
for phototypesetting clearly destinguishes it from the
merchandise ruled upon in HQ 086082.
HOLDING:
The Purup ImageMaker phototypesetting system, consisting of
the laser imagesetter with a dedicated computer control console
and the PostScript-Link Raster Image Processor, has the essential
character of the complete phototypesetting and composing machine,
even though it requires the addition of an Apple PC. Therefore
it is classifiable in subheading 8442.10.00, HTSUSA, which
provides for: "[m]achinery, apparatus and equipment..., for type-
founding or typesetting, for preparing or making printing blocks,
plates, cylinders and other printing components:
[p]hototypesetting and composing machines. The rate of duty is
Free.
Please be advised that all software is classifiable under
subheading 8524.90.40, HTSUSA, which provides for recorded media,
whether or not entered with the rest of the system. The rate of
duty is 9.7 cents/m2 of recording surface.
Sincerely,
John Durant, Director
Commercial Rulings Division