# HQ 965398

May 20, 2002

**CLA-2 RR:CR:GC** 965398 GOB

**CATEGORY:** Classification

**TARIFF NO.: 8462.29.80**

Port Director

U.S. Customs Service

610 S. Canal Street

Chicago, IL 60607

**RE:** Protest 3901-01-101800; Meltog STM 125 Tube Forming Machine

Dear Port Director:

This is our decision regarding Protest 3901-01-101800, filed by counsel
on behalf of Bradley Machine Shop ("protestant") concerning the
classification, under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United
States ("HTSUS"), of a tube forming machine.

**FACTS:**

The file reflects the following. The entry at issue was filed on
November 7, 2000, and was liquidated on August 3, 2001. The protest was
filed on October 25, 2001.

The Meltog STM 125 tube forming machine was entered under subheading
8479.89.97, HTSUS. The entry was liquidated under subheading 8462.29.80,
HTSUS. The protestant now claims classification under subheading
8455.10.00, HTSUS.

The protestant describes the tube forming machine as follows:

> The Meltog STM series of machines takes flat strip metal and rolls it
> into tubes. Strip metal is fed onto a main roller, and held tight
> against it by another roller. This rolling action creates the tube
> shape. The Meltog machinery puts a lip on \[the\] edge of the strip
> prior to the tube being rolled, so that successive windings hook
> together. The Meltog machinery can also be set up to perforate or
> louver the strip to meet specific application needs. The rolling
> action is offset, so that successive windings of the strip meet
> side-by-side, creating the tube shape. The type of tube created is
> generally referred to as spiral tube. A typical spiral tube design can
> be seen in the cardboard tubes used to hold household paper towels.

**ISSUE:**

What is the classification under the HTSUS of the tube forming machine?

**LAW AND ANALYSIS:**

We note initially that the protest was timely filed under the statutory
and regulatory provisions for protests, 19 U.S.C. 1514(c)(3)(A) and 19
CFR 174.12(e)(1).

Classification under the HTSUS is made in accordance with the General
Rules of Interpretation ("GRI's"). GRI 1 provides that the
classification of goods shall be determined according to the terms of
the headings of the tariff schedule and any relative Section or Chapter
Notes. In the event that the goods cannot be classified solely on the
basis of GRI 1, and if the headings and legal notes do not otherwise
require, the remaining GRI's may then be applied.

The Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System Explanatory Notes
("EN's") constitute the official interpretation of the Harmonized System
at the international level. While neither legally binding nor
dispositive, the EN's provide a commentary on the scope of each heading
of the HTSUS and are generally indicative of the proper interpretation
of these headings. See T.D. 89-80.

The HTSUS provisions under consideration are as follows:

> 8455 Metal-rolling mills and rolls therefor; parts thereof:
>
> 8455.10.00 Tube mills
>
> \* \* \* \* \* \*
>
> 8462 . . . machine tools (including presses) for working metal by
> bending, folding, straightening, flattening, shearing, punching or
> notching . . . :
>
> Bending, folding, straightening or flattening machines (including
> presses):

8462.29 Other:

8462.29.80 Other

\* \* \* \* \* \*

EN 84.55 provides in pertinent part as follows:

> **Rolling mills** are metal working machines consisting essentially of
> a system of rollers between which the metal is passed; the metal is
> rolled out or shaped by the pressure exerted by the rollers, and at
> the same time the rolling modifies the structure of the metal and
> improves its quality . . .
>
> . . . Other roller machines (e.g., for gumming metal foil on to a
> paper support) (**heading 84.20**), bending, folding, straightening or
> flattening machines (**heading 84.62**) are not regarded as rolling
> mills in the sense described above and are therefore **excluded** from
> this heading.
>
> Rolling mills are of various types according to the particular rolling
> operations for which they are designed, viz. :
>
> \(A\) Rolling out to reduce the thickness with a corresponding
> increase in length (e.g., in the rolling of ingots into blooms,
> billets or slabs; rolling of slabs into sheet, strip, etc.).
>
> \(B\) Rolling of blooms, billets, etc., to form a particular
> cross-section (e.g., in the production of bars, rods, angles, shapes,
> sections, girders, railway rails).
>
> \(C\) Rolling tubes.
>
> \(D\) Rolling of wheel blanks or wheel rim blanks (e.g., to shape the
> flanges of railway wheels).
>
> \[All emphasis in original.\]

EN 84.62 provides in pertinent part as follows:

> The heading covers certain machine tools, listed in the heading text,
> which work by changing the shape or form of metal or metal carbides.
>
> . . .
>
> The heading includes:
>
> . . .
>
> \(2\) **Bending machines**. These include machines for working flat
> products (sheets, plates and strips) which, by passing the products
> through three or four sets of rollers, give them a cylindrical curve .
> . . or else a conical shape . . . ; machines for working non-flat
> products (bars, rods, angles, shapes, sections, tubes). These machines
> work either by means of forming rollers, by press bending, or, for
> tubes (and, in particular, oil pipes), by drawing their ends while the
> main section is held by a fixed cylinder.

\[Emphasis in original.\]

After a careful consideration of this matter, we conclude that the tube
forming machine is not described in heading 8455, HTSUS. It is not a
rolling mill, nor is it very similar to any of the articles described in
EN 84.55. Further, we note the exclusion from heading 8455, HTSUS, in EN
84.55, excerpted above, of " . . . bending, folding, straightening and
flattening machines (heading **84.62**) . . ." The subject tube forming
machine is essentially a metal forming or bending machine which would
exclude it from heading 8455, HTSUS. It takes metal strip from a
decoiler and rolls it into tubes. Metal strip is fed onto a main roller
and held tight against it by another roller. The rolling action creates
the tube shape. We find that the tube forming machine is a bending
and/or forming machine. Therefore, it is provided for in heading 8462,
HTSUS, and is classified in subheading 8462.29.80, HTSUS, as: ". . .
machine tools (including presses) for working metal by bending, folding,
straightening, flattening, shearing, punching or notching . . . :
Bending, folding, straightening or flattening machines (including
presses): Other: Other."

Our determination is consistent with: HQ 965198 dated May 1, 2002 (copy
enclosed), where we classified a welded tube mill in subheading
8462.29.80, HTSUS; and a decision of the Harmonized System Committee
("HSC") in HSC 26 in November 2000 (See the *Compendium of
Classification Opinions*, p. 34E) where the HSC classified a section of
a tube mill in heading 8462, HTS.

**HOLDING:**

The tube forming machine is classified in subheading 8462.29.80, HTSUS,
as: ". . . machine tools (including presses) for working metal by
bending, folding, straightening, flattening, shearing, punching or
notching

. . . : Bending, folding, straightening or flattening machines
(including presses): . . . Other: . . . Other."

You are instructed to DENY the protest.

In accordance with Section 3A(11)(b) of Customs Directive 099 3550-065,
dated August 4, 1993, Subject: Revised Protest Directive, you are to
mail this decision, together with the Customs Form 19, to the protestant
no later than 60 days from the date of this letter. Any reliquidation of
the entry in accordance with the decision must be accomplished prior to
mailing of the decision. Sixty days from the date of the decision the
Office of Regulations

and Rulings will make the decision available to Customs personnel, and
to the public on the Customs Home Page on the World Wide Web at
www.customs.treas.gov, by means of the Freedom of Information Act, and
other methods of public distribution.

> Sincerely,

John Durant, Director

Commercial Rulings Division