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HQ 086397


July 20, 1990

CLA-2 CO:R:C:G 086397 CMS

CATEGORY: CLASSIFICATION

TARIFF NO.: 8482.10.50

District Director of Customs
U.S. Customhouse
1 East Bay Street
Savannah, GA 31401

RE: Linear Motion Guides; Linear Guides With Ball Bearings Which Travel In Linear Fashion On Grooved Rails Or Tracks

Dear Sir,

This is in response to your Request for Internal Advice No. 72/89, CLA-1:SV:C:I:2:LEF, dated November 20, 1989, regarding the classification of certain linear motion guides imported by OKUMA Machine Tools, Inc (OKUMA).

FACTS:

The merchandise consists of certain linear motion guides (LMG's). LMG's are comprised of (1) casings containing circulating ball bearings, and (2) grooved rails. The balls circulate in pathways within the casings and allow the casings to travel up and down the rails with minimal friction. After importation, machine tool tabletops sourced in the United States are affixed to the tops of the bearing casings and the assemblies are installed in machine tools.

ISSUE:

Are the linear motion guides classified as ball bearings in Heading 8482, or in Heading 8466 as parts of machines of Headings 8456 to 8465?

LAW AND ANALYSIS:

Heading 8482 describes ball bearings. The Explanatory Notes to Heading 8482 specifically provide that linear guides similar to the guides under consideration are described as ball bearings in Heading 8482. The Explanatory Notes to Heading 8482, p. 1324
provide that "[t]his heading covers all ball, roller or needle roller type bearings. ...The bearings classified in this heading include:

(A) Ball bearings, with single or double rows of balls. This group also includes slide mechanisms with bearing balls, for example:

3) The free-travelling type, of steel, comprising a segment, a casing enclosing the bearing balls, and a guide rail with a groove of triangular section.

(emphasis in original)

The merchandise under consideration consists of slide mechanisms with bearing balls as described by the Explanatory Notes to Heading 8482.

OKUMA argues that the Explanatory Notes to Heading 8482 should be ignored because the LMG's are not ball bearings and should not be classified in Heading 8482. As support for this argument, OKUMA presents: 1) HQ Ruling 053086 (December 5, 1977), 2) the Department of Commerce antidumping duty determination regarding Antifriction Bearings from Germany, 54 Fed. Reg. 18992 (May 2, 1989), and 3) the argument that LMG's are not described as antifriction ball bearings according to the common meaning of the term.

OKUMA cites HQ Ruling 053086 (December 5, 1977), which held that certain linear motion guides were not classified as ball bearings under the TSUS. However, HQ Ruling 053086 is not instructive. Congress clearly expressed that prior TSUS decisions should be instructive:

...where the nomenclature previously interpreted in those decisions remains unchanged and no dissimilar interpretation is required by the text of the HTS. (emphasis added).

H. Conf. Rep. No. 100-576, 100th Cong., 2d Sess. 549- 550, (1988), reprinted in 1988 U.S. Code Cong. & Admin. News 1582-1583.

The nomenclature previously interpreted in HQ Ruling 053086 has clearly changed in regard to the classification of linear motion
guides. Unlike the TSUS which was interpreted with the aid of the Summaries Of Trade And Tariff Information (1969), the HTS is interpreted with the aid of the Explanatory Notes. The Explanatory Notes are the official interpretive guide for the HTS. H. Conf. Rep. No. 100-576, supra, p. 549. Customs believes they should always be consulted. T.D. 89-80, p. 3. The HTS Explanatory Notes unequivocally provide that the LMG's are described as ball bearings under the HTS and are classified in Heading 8482.

As persuasive support, OKUMA cites the Department of Commerce antidumping duty determination regarding Antifriction Bearings from Germany, 54 Fed. Reg. 18992 (May 2, 1989). There, the DOC made a finding that linear motion guides and antifriction ball bearings constitute separate classes or kinds of merchandise, and that linear motion guides are distinct products having fundamentally different functions. This finding was made, however, in the context of an antidumping duty determination and does not relate to classification determinations under the HTSUSA. In Royal Business Machines, Inc. v. United States, 1 CIT 80, 507 F. Supp. 1007, (CIT, December, 1980), aff'd. 669 F. 2d 692, the Court of International Trade recognized the fundamental difference between antidumping and classification determinations. The Court stated:

The Court distinguishes between the authority of the Customs Service to classify according to tariff classifications (19 U.S.C. 1500) and the power of the agencies administering the antidumping law to determine a class or kind of merchandise. The determinations under the antidumping law may properly result in the creation of classes which do not correspond to classifications found in the tariff schedules or may define or modify a known classification in a manner not contemplated or desired by the Customs Service.

Royal Business Machines, Inc. v. U.S., 1 CIT at 87, fn. 18

OKUMA also argues that LMG's are not antifriction ball bearings under the common meaning of the term because LMG's are not associated with rotary motion, do not have inner and outer rails, do not have balls in a fixed relation to one another, and have a positioning function, not an antifriction function. However, antifriction ball bearings are not restricted to the features described by OKUMA. Antifriction ball bearings perform positioning as well as friction reduction functions, and can be designed for rotary or linear movement. The McGraw Hill Encyclopedia Of Science And Technology, 6th Ed., Vol. 1 (1987), p. 633 provides:

Antifriction bearing

A machine element that permits free motion between moving and fixed parts. Antifriction bearings are essential to mechanized equipment; they hold or guide moving machine parts and minimize friction and wear. (emphasis added)

Various ball and roller bearings are illustrated on p. 639 of the McGraw Hill Encyclopedia Of Science And Technology, supra, including a "[b]all bushing that permits unlimited travel, linear motion" (emphasis added). The illustrated device, like the LMG's under consideration, has ball bearings which circulate freely around pathways in the ball bearing casing.

Linear motion guides are described as ball bearings and the Explanatory Notes to Heading 8482 clearly provide that under the HTS they are intended to be classified in Heading 8482. Pursuant to Section XVI Note 2(a), the LMG's are classified in Heading 8482 and not in a heading providing for parts of machinery. The LMG's are described by Heading 8482, and are classified as ball bearings, not having integral shafts, in subheading 8482.10.50.

HOLDING:

The linear motion guides are classified as ball bearings, not having integral shafts, in 8482.10.50, HTSUSA.

A copy of this decision should be forwarded to the internal advice applicant.

Sincerely,


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