Tariff classification of hot foil marking machine confirmed under residuary heading, not as printing machinery.

A hot foil marking machine operated by electropneumatic pressure to transfer designs from heated dies onto plastic components through stamping foil was held not to be ordinary printing machinery. Because it did not use printing ink, blocks, plates, cylinders or matrices, it was distinguished from earlier machinery classified as printing equipment. The residuary heading for an individual function not elsewhere specified applied only where no more specific printing heading was available, and that condition was not met. The machine was therefore classifiable under Heading 84.59(1) of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, rather than Heading 84.35.

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Issues: Whether the imported hot foil marking machine was classifiable under Heading 84.35 as other printing machinery, or under Heading 84.59(1) as a machine having an individual function not elsewhere specified.

Analysis: The machine was described by the manufacturer as a hot foil marking or stamping press and operated on electropneumatic pressure to transfer designs from heated dies onto plastic components through coloured stamping foil. It was not a machine used in the ordinary printing industry with printing ink, blocks, plates, cylinders or matrices. The earlier decision on capsule and tablet printing machinery was distinguished because that machine performed normal printing by gravure and printing ink, whereas the present machine was essentially a stamping machine. The residuary heading was therefore found appropriate only where no more specific printing heading applied, and that was not the position here.

Conclusion: The imported machine was correctly classifiable under Heading 84.59(1) of the Customs Tariff Act, 1975, and not under Heading 84.35.

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