Rosenblad Corp. v. United States

49 C.C.P.A. 81, 1962 CCPA LEXIS 300
CourtCourt of Customs and Patent Appeals
DecidedApril 11, 1962
DocketNo. 5084
StatusPublished

This text of 49 C.C.P.A. 81 (Rosenblad Corp. v. United States) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Customs and Patent Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rosenblad Corp. v. United States, 49 C.C.P.A. 81, 1962 CCPA LEXIS 300 (ccpa 1962).

Opinion

Smith, Judge,

delivered tbe opinion of the court:

The United States Customs Court, Second Division, overruled the protest of the importer and sustained the action of the Collector of Customs assessing duty on certain imported “Spiral Heat Exchangers” at the rate of 21% ad valorem under paragraph 397, Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by the Sixth Protocol to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (T.D. 54108) as manufactures of metal, not specially provided for.

The importer contends that the imported merchandise was properly dutiable at 13% ad valorem under paragraph 372 as modified by the above said Protocol, as machines or, alternately, as parts of machines.

Paragraph 397 as modified, under which the merchandise was classified provides, in so far as applicable here, as follows:

Articles or wares not specially provided for, whether partly, or wholly manufactured: * * * Composed wholly or in chief value of iron, steel * * *_21% ad val.

Paragraph 372 as modified, under which the merchandise is claimed by appellant to be properly classified provides, insofar as applicable, as follows:

Machines, finished or unfinished, not specially provided for: * * * Other * * *_13% ad val.
****$**
Parts, not specially provided for, * * * The rate for the article of which they are parts.

The imported merchandise consists of spiral heat exchangers of two types illustrated in a pamphlet, Plaintiff’s Exhibit 1.

The pamphlet describes the spiral heat exchangers as follows:

The Rosenblad Spiral Heat Exchanger — ideal for heating and cooling liquids and for cooling and condensing vapours or gas-vapour mixtures.
The spiral heat exchanger consists essentially of two plates, normally of stainless steel, wound round each other in a spiral so as to form two concentric passages, one for each of the two media between which heat is to be exchanged. The hot medium enters at the centre of the unit and leaves at the periphery: the cold medium enters at the periphery and leaves at the centre. Heat exchange thus takes place under perfect counter-current conditions.

[83]*83The pamphlet further describes three main types of spiral heat exchangers, two of which, types 1 and 3, make up the imported merchandise. The principle of operation of all three types is the same and they are identical for tariff classification purposes.

Such heat exchangers haye widespread use in various industries, such as the cellulose industry, in sulphate pulp mills, in the chemical industry, in gas and coke plants, aluminum plants, in textile mills, in sugar factories, in canneries and in central heating and steam boiler plants.'

In any installation the imported heat exchangers are used to transfer heat between two fluids.

Spiral heat exchangers of the type here in issue have been involved in prior litigation in which their classification for customs purposes was in issue. The record of United States v. Fibre Making Processes, Inc., 33 CCPA 110, C.A.D. 23, one of the prior cases, is incorporated in the record of the instant case. Incorporated in the record of the Fibre Making Processes case, is the record of another case, American Heat Reclaiming Corp. v. United States, 8 Cust. Ct. 214, C.D. 608.

In American Heat Reclaiming Corp., supra, a spiral heat exchanger of the type here in issue was held not to be a machine or parts thereof n.s.p.f. under paragraph 372, but to be a manufacture of metal n.s.p.f. under paragraph 397.

In United States v. Fibre Making Processes, Inc., supra, this court, reversing the judgment of the United States Customs Court, held that a spiral heat exchanger was properly classified as a manufacture of metal under paragraph 397 and not as parts of machines for making paper pulp or paper under paragraph 372.

The court below, (Abstract 65600), in overruling the instant protest, stated that nothing of a factual or legal concept was found in the instant record which would induce it to depart from its reasoning in the American Heat Reclaiming case, supra.

An examination of the evidence in the record discloses, as outlined in appellee’s brief:

1) that the spiral heat exchanger consisted of 2 plates rolled up into spirals, creating 2 compartments, one on each side of the plates;
2) that one liquid having a high temperature flows through one compartment and another liquid having a lower temperature flows through the other;
3) that the force behind the liquid comes from outside the spiral heat exchanger, either through a pump or by gravity;
4) that the two liquids are completely separate;
5) that the hot liquid enters at the center of the unit and leaves at the periphery;
6) that the cold liquid enters at the periphery and leaves at the center;
7) that when the hot liquid and the cold liquid flow through the heat exchanger due to the change in direction and the spiral flow, heat from the hot liquid is transferred to the cold liquid;
[84]*848) that there is nothing in the heat exchanger itself which will raise the temperature or control the pressure or rate of flow;
9) that is [sic] contains no heating element;
10) that conduction, radiation and convection are the methods by which the heat travels;
11) tha t all three of said methods are natural physical forces;
12) that for aught that appears in the record, said spiral heat exchangers contain no movable parts.

Tbe question of what is and what is not a “machine” for purposes of classification in customs law has been before this court in numerous cases, in some of which an attempt at definition of the term has been essayed. In Simon, Buhler & Baumann, (Inc.) v. United States, 8 Ct. Cust. Appls. 273, T.D. 37537, a machine was defined as a “mechanical contrivance for utilizing, applying or modifying energy or force, or for the translation of motion.” The Customs Court below stated that this case “is the lodestar on the subject.”

A recent case in this court on the subject of machines is United States v. Idl Mfg. & Sales Corp., 48 CCPA 17, C.A.D. 756, which involved two models of hand-operated paper punches, each containing two punching dies normally held open by a spring. The dies are closed to punch holes by the manual operation of a member which acts on the dies as a lever which multiplies the applied force. Actuation of the lever by hand to punch holes compressed the spring which opens the dies automatically when the pressure is released. Said punches were classified as manufactures of metal not specially provided for under paragraph 397, Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by T.D. 51802. They were claimed to be properly classifiable as machines not specially provided for under paragraph 372, Tariff Act of 1930, as modified by T.D. 51802. The Customs Court sustained the protest and the Government appealed.

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The Margaret
22 U.S. 421 (Supreme Court, 1824)
Welte v. United States
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Simon, Buhler & Baumann (Inc.) v. United States
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American Heat Reclaiming Corp. v. United States
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Bluebook (online)
49 C.C.P.A. 81, 1962 CCPA LEXIS 300, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rosenblad-corp-v-united-states-ccpa-1962.