us-cbp-cross-rulings-hq-089200•HQ 089200: Request for further review of protest no. 0401-90-000305. Filter cloth; straining cloth; bolting cloth; technical
HQ 089200: Request for further review of protest no. 0401-90-000305. Filter cloth; straining cloth; bolting cloth; technical
us-cbp-cross-rulings-hq-089200HQ 089200: Request for further review of protest no. 0401-90-000305. Filter cloth; straining cloth; bolting cloth; technicalGuidance
Native CBP ruling rendition. Applicability is fact-specific; modification/revocation relationships and original publisher date are retained. Publisher sentinel year0001 means unknown date, not a historical legal adoption.
HQ 089200
April 15, 1992
CLA-2 CO:R:C:T 089200 HP
CATEGORY: Classification
TARIFF NO.: 5911.40.0000
Mr. John V. Linde
District Director
U.S. Customs Service
Thomas P. O'Neill, Jr. Federal Building
10 Causeway Street
Boston, MA 02222-1059
RE: Request for further review of protest no. 0401-90-000305.
Filter cloth; straining cloth; bolting cloth; technical
Dear Mr. Linde:
This is in response to your memorandum of June 19, 1990,
requesting further review of protest no. 0401-90-000305.
FACTS:
The merchandise at issue consists of woven filter cloths
produced in Germany, imported in material lengths, and not
containing any lines of demarcation. The textile material,
after importation, is cut to size to make filters for use in
filter presses in batch filtration units. The applications are
in water filtration, sewerage and chemical treatment, and a
variety of food and beverage processing equipment. Each
material or quality is designed or tailored for specific
filtration requirements. The material will be cut and mounted
on plates or frames, which are then incorporated in the filter
press.
Filtration characteristics required for a particular
filter press must be determined prior to the submission of the
purchase order and manufacture of the filter press cloth. In
fabricating the filter press cloth, nine design parameters or
variables are adjusted in accordance with the filtration
requirements of the customer:
1.Weight;
2.Permeability;
3.Yarn;
4.Fiber;
5.Count (warp & weft);
6.Weave;
7.Treatment;
8.Mix; and
9.Finish.
At conference, counsel informed us that the samples
included with the Protest documentation was not representative
of the fabrics described on the entry documents. In counsel's
follow-up correspondence of September 23, 1991, samples of four
of the five different fabrics entered were enclosed.
Specifically:
F254 F206 F250 F255
Style #814 Style #807 Style #810 Style #821
Polypropylene Polypropylene Polypropylene Polypropylene
Weight: Weight: Weight: Weight: 16.0
18.0 oz/yd 8.70 oz/yd 18.1 oz/yd oz/yd squared
squared squared squared
Weave: X Weave: Weave: 3/1 Weave: X Twill
Twill Satin Double
CFM: 1.0 @ CFM: 5-7 @ CFM: 1.0 @ 1.5 @ 1/2"
1/2" w.g. 1/2" w.g. 1/2" w.g. w.g.
The Office of Laboratories & Scientific Services has informed
us that all have multiple warp and/or fillings. Additionally,
counsel stated that
Style No CD 221 is no longer utilized by [Importer]
and a sample is not available. I am advised by my
client that CD 221 was of a plain weave and thus is
dissimilar in construction to the four above-
referenced fabrics. Accordingly, we would admit
that fabric style CD 221 is classifiable as
straining cloth.
ISSUE:
Whether the filter cloths are considered bolting cloths,
straining cloths, or other textile technical products under the
HTSUSA?
LAW AND ANALYSIS:
Heading 5911, HTSUSA, provides for textile products and
articles for technical uses. The General Rules of
Interpretation (GRIs) to the HTSUSA govern the classification
of goods in the tariff schedule. GRI 1 states, in pertinent
part, that "...classification shall be determined according to
the terms of the headings and any relative section or chapter
notes...." Goods which cannot be classified in accordance with
GRI 1 are to be classified in accordance with subsequent GRIs,
taken in order. Note 7 to Chapter 59, HTSUSA, provides:
Heading 5911 applies to the following goods, which
do not fall in any other heading of section XI:
(a)Textile products in the piece, cut to length or
simply cut to rectangular (including square) shape
(other than those having the character of the
products of headings 5908 to 5910), the following
only:
(i)Textile fabrics, felt and felt-lined woven
fabrics, coated, covered or laminated with
rubber, leather or other material, of a kind
used for card clothing, and similar fabrics
of a kind used for other technical purposes;
(ii)Bolting cloth;
(iii)Straining cloth of a kind used in oil
presses or the like, of textile material or
of human hair;
(iv)Flat woven textile fabric with multiple
warp or weft, whether or not felted, impreg-
nated or coated, of a kind used in machinery
or for other technical purposes;
(v)Textile fabric reinforced with metal, of a
kind used for technical purposes;
(vi)Cords, braids and the like, whether or
not coated, impregnated or reinforced with
metal, of a kind used in industry as packing
or lubricating materials;
(b)Textile articles (other than those of
headings 5908 to 5910) of a kind used for
technical purposes (for example, textile
fabrics and felts, endless or fitted with
linking devices, of a kind used in
papermaking or similar machines (for
example, for pulp or asbestos-cement),
gaskets, polishing discs and other
machinery parts).
Importer attempted to enter the merchandise at issue as a
bolting cloth; alternatively, counsel now states that
classification as an "other" would be acceptable. Customs
disagreed, appraising this merchandise as a straining cloth.
Bolting Cloth
The Explanatory Notes (EN) to the HTSUSA constitute the
official interpretation of the tariff at the international
level. While not legally binding, they do represent the
considered views of classification experts of the Harmonized
System Committee. It has therefore been the practice of the
Customs Service to follow, whenever possible, the terms of the
Explanatory Notes when interpreting the HTSUSA. The EN to
heading 5911, HTSUSA, defines "bolting cloths" as:
... porous fabrics (for example, with a
gauze, leno or plain weave), geometrically
accurate as to size and shape (usually
square) of the meshes, which must not be
deformed by use. They are mainly used for
sifting (e.g., flour, abrasive powders,
powdered plastics, cattle food), filtering
or for screen printing. Bolting cloths are
generally made of hard twisted undischarged
silk yarn or of synthetic filament yarn.
[Emphasis added].
Wingate, Dr. Isabel B., Fairchild's Dictionary of Textiles
(6TH ed.) (Fairchild 1979) [hereinafter Fairchild's], at 237,
defines "filter cloth" as:
A general term for a number of different
fabrics used for filtering purposes,
ranging from fine flour filter fabric
(bolting cloth) made of silk or synthetic
fibers, to very coarse cotton or man-made
fiber filter fabric. The cloths vary in
weave, weight, fiber, size of yarns and all
other features. Man-made fibers such as
nylon, acrylic, vinyl, polyethylene and
others as well as glass fibers are very
useful as industrial filtering cloths
because of their resistance to the action
of many chemicals.
Counsel claims that the above-emphasized language from the
Explanatory Note encompasses the filtering fabric at issue. We
disagree. By employing the language "the following only" in
Note 7 to Chapter 59, HTSUSA, the drafters of the HTS made it
clear that only certain types of technical products were to be
classified within each subheading of heading 5911, HTSUSA. We
note with particular interest that more than one "filter cloth"
is specifically provided for within the heading. We therefore
reject any argument that broad language such as "porous fabrics
... mainly used for ... filtering" specifically incorporates
this merchandise within the breakout for "bolting cloth." See
also Fairchild's, supra, at 71 (recognizing that primary uses
of bolting cloths are sifting flour and screen printing).
Straining Cloth vs. "Other" Technical Cloth
McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of Science & Technology (McGraw-
Hill 1987) describes "filtration."
[Filtration is t]he separation of
solid particles from a fluid-solids
suspension of which they are part of by
passage of most of the fluid through a
septum or membrane that maintains most of
the solids on or within itself. The septum
is called a filter medium, and the
equipment assembly that holds the medium
and provides space for the accumulated
solids is called a filter. The fluid may
be a gas or a liquid. The solid particles
may be coarse or very fine, and their
concentration in the suspension may be
extremely low (a few parts per million) or
quite high (>50%).
The object of filtration may be to
purify the fluid by clarification or to
recover clean, fluid-free particles, or
both.
* * *
Liquid filtration. Liquid-solids
separations are important in the
manufacture of chemicals, polymer products,
medicinals, beverages, and foods; in
mineral processing; in water purification;
in sewage disposal; in the chemistry
laboratory; and in the operation of
machines such as internal combustion
engines. Filtration is the most versatile
and widely used operation for such
applications. In some cases, however,
gravity or centrifugal sedimentation is
preferred to filtration. [Citations
omitted.]
Liquid filters are of two major
classes, cake filters and clarifying
filters. The former are so called because
they separate slurries carrying relatively
large amounts of solids. They build up on
the filter medium as a visible, removable
cake which is normally discharged "dry"
(that is, as a mass), frequently after
being washed in the filter. It is on the
surface of this cake that filtration takes
place after the first layer is formed on
the medium. The feed to the cake filter
normally contains at least 1% solids.
* * *
Cake filters. There are three classes
of cake filters, depending on the driving
force producing the separation. In
pressure filters, superatmospheric pressure
is applied by pump or compressed gas to the
feed slurry and filtrate is discharged at
atmospheric pressure, or higher.
* * *
Cake filters are also classified as
batch-operating or continuous. In general,
pressure filters are batch or intermittent.
Pressure filters. There are three
principal industrial classes of pressure
filters: filter presses.... Filter presses
are the simplest and most versatile
pressure filters. One form, the plate-and-
frame press, ... consists of a number of
rectangular or circular vertical plates,
alternating with empty frames, assembled on
horizontal rails. * * * The medium
consists of filter cloths [(the merchandise
at issue)] hung over the plates and
covering all filter areas. * * * Filtrate
collects on the plate surfaces and leaves
the press through drainage channels.
The EN to heading 5911, HTSUSA, describes "straining
cloths" as:
... (e.g., woven filter fabrics an [sic.]
needled filter fabrics), whether or not
impregnated, of a kind used in oil presses
or for similar filtering purposes (e.g., in
sugar refineries or breweries) and for gas
cleaning or similar technical applications
in industrial dust collecting systems. The
heading includes oil filtering cloth,
certain thick heavy fabrics of wool or of
other animal hair, and certain unbleached
fabrics of synthetic fibres (e.g., nylon)
thinner than the foregoing but of a close
weave and having a characteristic rigidity.
It also includes similar straining cloth of
human hair.
Counsel claims that Customs classification of this
merchandise as a straining cloth is incorrect, since straining
cloth is generally utilized for depth filtration - as a gross
cloth in an elementary filtration system. In contrast, counsel
argues, the instant merchandise is designed and manufactured as
a "filter press cloth" to meet nine variable characteristics in
accordance with the specific technical filtration requirements
of the customer. Therefore, while still considered filtering
cloths, the cloths at issue should not be classifiable as
straining cloths. See Fairchild's, supra, stating that the
general term filter cloths "vary in weave, weight, fiber, size
of yarns and all other features."
We do not agree. In HRL 950284 of March 19, 1992, we
classified a sludge filtering belt, stating:
This language [EN 5911] indicates that the drafters
of the tariff schedule have included in their
definition of "straining cloth" a much broader
range of articles than those that are merely used
in oil presses.
* * *
We next address whether a "straining cloth"
is different than a "filtering" cloth or belt. It
is this office's opinion that the terms are syn-
onymous as evidenced by the common usage of the
word "strain" and the identical functions of
straining cloths and filtering cloths or belts.
Webster's II New Riverside University Dictionary
(Riverside 1984) defines "strain" as "to pass (a
substance) through a filtering agent; ... to remove
or draw off by filtration." In other words, to
strain is to filter and, by analogy, a straining
cloth is a filtering cloth or belt. * * * Any
straining or filtering cloth classifiable in
subheading 5911.40.0000, HTSUSA, is designed to
separate solid matter from fluid and is for a
technical use. The subject merchandise is put to
the same use as the straining cloth used in oil
presses, sugar refineries and breweries and it is
clearly used for technical purposes. Accordingly,
classification of the subject merchandise is proper
under subheading 5911.40.0000, HTSUSA, and we need
not examine the merits of classifying the subject
merchandise under the "other" breakout in heading
5911, HTSUSA.
HOLDING:
As a result of the foregoing, the instant merchandise is
classified under subheading 5911.40.0000, HTSUSA, as textile
products and articles, for technical uses, specified in note 7
to this chapter, straining cloth of a kind used in oil presses
or the like, including that of human hair. The applicable rate
of duty is 17 percent ad valorem.
You are instructed to deny the protest in full. A copy of
this decision should be attached to the Form 19 Notice of
Action.
Sincerely,
John Durant, Director
Commercial Rulings Division
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