CLA-2-84:RR:NC:1:103 B84157
Mr. D. Taylor Pillsbury
Glad & Ferguson
One Sutter Street, Tenth Floor
San Francisco, CA 94104
RE: The tariff classification of a sputter coating machine from
the United Kingdom
Dear Mr. Pillsbury:
In your letter dated April 3, 1997 on behalf of Southwall
Technologies you requested a tariff classification ruling.
Your client intends to import a roll coating machine which
is designed to place a transparent, conductive, anti-reflective
coating onto a clear plastic film base by means of sputtering.
Sputtering is a coating process in which the material to be
coated is ejected from a target bombarded by ions. The machine
will basically consist of a stainless steel cylindrical chamber
10 feet in diameter and 8 feet long, a support structure, DC
magnetron sputterers, an electrical control, vacuum pumps and
mechanical drives. Initially, the chamber will be evacuated of
all air. Rolls of polyethylene teraphthalate film approximately
4 feet wide and 5000 feet long will be unwound by the machine and
wrapped around a stainless steel drum 5 feet in diameter. The
coating will be applied by means of seven DC magnetron sputtering
units while the film is wrapped around the steel drum. After
being coated, the film is rewound onto a take-up core. The end
product produced by this process will be bonded to the face of a
computer monitor screen to form an anti-reflective surface which
enhances the CRT's display. The imported coating machine will
produce about 2.8 million square feet of coated film per year.
You contend the proper classification for this machine is in
subheading 8420.10.9040, Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United
States (HTS), which provides for calendering or other rolling
machines: other: calendering or other rolling machines for rubber
and plastics. In support of your position you cite the language
of the Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System
Explanatory Note (EN) to heading 8420, which describes
calendering machines as follows:
These machines consist essentially of two or more
parallel cylinders or rollers revolving with their surfaces in more or less close contact so as to perform
the following operations, whether by pressure alone or
by pressure combined with friction, heat or moisture:
***
(2) The production of certain effects on the surface of
sheet materials (other than metal or glass) passed
between the rollers, e.g., smoothing (including
ironing), lustering, glazing, embossing or graining.
(3) The application of dressings or surface coatings.
You also cite Ruling Letter HQ 955929 dated May 25, 1994 in which
Customs held that a machine which utilized pressure and heat
generated by two parallel rollers to apply a film coating to the
surface of a paper sheet was properly classified in subheading
8420.10.90, HTS.
Based on your written description of the imported machine,
as well as the schematic drawings submitted with your letter, the
imported machine is not a calendering machine as described by the
EN and by Ruling Letter HQ 955929. The surface coating applied in
the imported machine will not be produced by the pressure
generated by parallel cylinders or rollers as the sheet passes
between them. Instead, it is the result of bombarding a target
with ions, which dislodges atoms which then adhere to the surface
of the film. Accordingly, the imported machine is not a
calendering machine and is not classifiable in subheading
8420.10.90, HTS.
As an alternative, you suggest classifying the coating
machine in subheading 8515.80.00, HTS, which provides for, among
other things, other magnetic pulse welding machines and
apparatus, whether or not capable of cutting. However, you
concede the machine is not commercially known as a plastic
welder, and that the finished product is the result of a coating
process rather than a welding process. As this machine does not
perform welding, classification in subheading 8515.80.00, HTS, is
precluded.
The applicable subheading for the plastic film sputter
coating machine will be 8479.89.9598, HTS, which provides for
machines and mechanical appliances having individual functions,
not specified or included elsewhere (in chapter 84): other
machines and mechanical appliances: other: other: other: other.
The rate of duty will be 3 percent ad valorem.
This ruling is being issued under the provisions of Part 177
of the Customs Regulations (19 C.F.R. 177).
A copy of the ruling or the control number indicated above
should be provided with the entry documents filed at the time
this merchandise is imported. If you have any questions
regarding the ruling, contact National Import Specialist Alan
Horowitz at 212-466-5494.
Sincerely,
Robert B. Swierupski
Chief, Metals & Machinery Branch
National Commodity
Specialist Division