ORDER
H.R. Syiem, Member (T)
1. The importers, M/s. Soldez Industries, imported a machine they described as hydraulic swaging machine for which they claimed assessment under Customs Tariff Heading 84.W/48. The machine was assessed by the Custom House under 84.59. According to the appellants, the machine is a swaging machine and is used in fitting the metal end to the hose by employing swaging process. The process has two parts to be fitted – (i) the metallic end fitting and (ii) the hose. According to the findings of the Assistant Collector, which the appellants also approve, “the function of the machine is that the rubber cover at the end of the braided hose is shaved to some extent and the metallic fitting to be mounted is slipped over the hose. A metallic sleeve slightly bigger in diameter is fixed over the hose and then this is put into the pressing dies of the machine. The press compresses and fits the metallic sleeve on to the hose. In the process, the diameter of the metallic sleeve 6ets reduced so as to fit firmly on to the hose and length of the sleeve also gets elongated. This process is repeated for every hose.”
2. But in the next sentence the Assistant Collector contradicts, himself by saying that the press does not change the shape of the mefal.
3. The learned counsel for M/s. Soldez Industries said that the finding by the Assistant Collector proves that their machine is nothing but a swaging machine, because in the process of fitting the metal end sleeve to the end of the hose and in pressing the two together, the metallic sleeve fitting is reduced in diameter; this reduction is brought about by the swaging machine during the process of mounting the sleeve on the braided hose.
4. The learned counsel for the department, however, said that this is only an instrument or a tool for fitting a metal sleeve to the end of a hose and is not, therefore, a swaging machine.
5. The appellants are quite correct when they say that swaging machines are specifically included in 84.45 of the CCCN and since their machine is a swaging machine, it should receive assessment under this head rather than under 84.59 as assessed by the custom house. The question will, therefore, be that the machine is a swaging machine and not a tool as held by the custom house. The CCCN describes the swaging machine as a machine in which tubes or bars are forced through rotating dies to reduce the diameter. The McGRAW-HILL DICTIONARY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY describes swaging as tapering a rod or a tube or reducing its diameter by any of several methods, such as forging, squeezing or hammering. The CHAMBERS DICTIONARY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY describes swaging as reducing of cross-section of metal rod or tube by forcing it through a tapered aperture between two grooved dies. It is useful to note from the above that all the definitions given by the technical authorities point to swaging as a forming process when a rod or a tube needs to have its diameter reduced. (There is no need for us to go into the controversy that the machine does not have rotating dies. We should concentrate only on whether this machine, when fitting the metal end to the hose, swages the metal end, if we are to arrive at the truth).
6. The appeal by M/s. Soldez Industries itself contains valuable clues. They say that swaging operation is a metal forming operation and their hydraulic press for swaging is a metal forming machine. There are various equipments/machines/tools available for metal forming such as :
(i) milling
(ii) drilling
(iii) lathe
(iv) swaging etc.
each being required for a specific function. The appellants say that the Assistant Collector as well as the Appellate Collector agree that swaging was a metal forming technique. And once it is agreed that swaging is a metal forming technique, then the same is clearly covered by Heading 84.45/48. The distinction between rotating type of dies and compression dies used in particular swaging machines is not relevant under the Customs Tariff of 1975. Once an equipment is a metal cutting/forming machine, it is specifically covered under the Heading 84.45/48 and not under Heading 84.59.
7. What they have imported is a metal forming tool and it should be assessed as one.
8. The fact of the matter is, however, that the hydraulic swaging press is not a metal forming machine, but a fitting, mounting, modifying tool/instrument designed for a specific function, a particular job. The swaging machine, as we have seen from the definition, is for forming a bar or a tube which is the workpiece; the work is to reduce its size or diameter through a die which is narrower at one end than the other. When the work is forced through this die, the work emerges smaller/ thinner/narrower through the small end. This work has been formed and the bar, rod or tube has been given a new cross-section/shape or diameter by reason of the forming which it underwent in the machine. That rod or tube with the narrower or thinner diameter is the piece of work that the producer wanted to produce; it is the end of the production effort. There has been a forming/shaping to produce a distinct product.
9. When this hydraulic swaging machine imported by Soldez Industries goes to work on the hose and does the metal end fitting, the end is not the reduction fo the otuer or inner diameter of the metal sleeve, but to fit it to the end of the hose. This is necessary for various reasons one of which is that the ends of the hose not being very strong, need to be protected from damage by fraying, loosening of the fabric in their rubber coating/bonding etc. Furthermore, the metal end is useful when it is to be fitted to an outlet such as a hydrant or water faucet so that the output, water, can flow from the permanent metal pipes into the temporary hose. The reduction of the diameter of the metal end fitting is only a secondary aim of the manufacturers: the primary aim being to permanently fit and bond the sleeve into/over the end of the hose. For reasons that are obvious, the metal end will not fit to the hose or hold the hose squarely or tightly or strongly enough. The reduction of the diameter of the metal end fitting results not in the reduction process alone, but results in fitting the metal end on to the hose end to render the two strong and inseparable. This method – reduction of the diameter of the metal end sleeve – is the preferred method for such bonding. Theoretically the hose can be expanded to fit into the inner diameter of the metal sleeve, but the result will never be as satisfactory as when the metal sleeve is pressed and forced to fit to the end of the hose by having its diameter reduced. Furthermore, increasing the diameter at the end of the hose to fit the larger diameter of the metal sleeve will result in weakening of the hose at the point and a loss of the uniformity of the inner diameter of the hose, a very undesirable effect.
10. The hydraulic press for swaging imported by Soldez Industries is not a metal forming machine and the work it does is not a swaging process but only a sleeve fitting process, he extract that they produced from ” PROCESSES” by Myron L. Begeman confirms our finding. This extract lists swaging as one of the 15 or 16 processes primarily used to change the shape of metals. It states that in the processes listed, material is changed into its primary form for some selected part. In certain cases parts are suitably finished for commercial use as in metal spinning, cold rolling of shafting, die casting, stretch forming of sheet metal and drawing wire. In other cases, neither the dimensions nor the surface finish are satisfactory for the final product, and further work on the part is necessary. There can be nothing more conclusive than this to prove that swaging is one of the metal forming, finishing processes and not merely a process for fitting components, parts, items together to form a composite whole. Swaging, like all metal forming, is a metal forming/finishing process and these are ends in themselves; their aim is to finish that work on which they are expended in order to make them more marketable, more desirable commercially, and so on. Therefore,, we have to conclude from all this that the hydraulic press imported by Soldez Industries is not a swaging machine as would be covered by Heading 04.45/48.