HEADING 84.43 - PRINTING MACHINERY INCLUDING INK-JET PRINTING MACHINES OTHER THAN THOSE OF HEADING No. 84.71; MACHINES FOR USES ANCILLARY TO PRINTING (+) .
81 COMMODITIES
- Offset printing machinery :
8443.11 - - Reel fed
8443.12 - - Sheet fed office type (sheet size not exceeding 22 x
36 cm)
8443.19 - - Other
- Letterpress printing machinery excluding flexographic
printing :
8443.21 - - Reel fed
8443.29 - - Other
8443.30 - Flexographic printing machinery
8443.40 - Gravure printing machinery
-Other printing machinery :
8443.51 - - Ink-jet printing machines
8443.59 - - Other
8443.60 - Machines for uses ancillary to printing
8443.90 - Parts
This heading covers all machines used for printing by means of the type printing
blocks plates or cylinders of the previous heading excluding therefore :
(a) Office hectograph or stencil duplicating machines addressing machines and other office machines of
(b) Photocopying or thermocopying apparatus (e.g. for the production of blue prints plans etc. or for the
reproduction of documents picture postcards etc.) (CHAPTER90).
The heading also covers :
(1) Machines for printing a repetitive design repetitive wording or overall colour on textiles wallpaper wrapping paper rubber plastics sheeting linoleum leather etc.
(2) Ink-jet printing machines except those specifically designed to form a unit of heading 84.71.
(3) Ancillary machinery (whether or not presented separately) such as feeders and folding machines provided they are specially designed as ancillary machines to printing machines.
(I) PRINTING MACHINERY
This may be divided into four main categories viz. :
(A) Printing presses including :
(1) Ordinary presses used particularly for printing artists' engravings or proofs. In their simplest form they usually consist of a fixed horizontal slab (or bed) to hold the forme clich‚ or plate to be reproduced and a movable plate which is pressed against the bed by means of a screw or lever
mechanism; the paper sheet is interposed and backed with a special material (blanket) to distribute the pressure evenly; inking is done by hand or mechanically.
(2) Platen presses these are much more powerful but similar in principle. The movable pressure plate (or platen) with the blanket and paper sheet is almost horizontal and closes like a jaw against the type matter held in position by the fixed vertical bed. Normally such presses are equipped with a roller inking arrangement but the group also includes non-inking platen presses for dry relief printing.
(B) Cylinder printing machines.
The special feature of these is that the platen is replaced by a rotating cylinder carrying the paper sheet and the blanket while the bed is flat and receives an alternating transmission movement under the cylinder. This category of machines includes :
(1) Single cylinder machines which like the presses described above print one side of the sheet only; they make either one or two revolutions for each sheet printed.
(2) Machines with one or two cylinders and with a two-forme bed for printing both sides of the sheet the bed alternating automatically between one cylinder and the other in the case of the two cylinder machines. Some presses of this kind combine several units on one frame for multi-colour printing.
(C) Rotary presses.
Here the bed itself is replaced by a cylinder with two semi-cylindrical plates (typographical) or by cylinders which may be either engraved (photogravure or rotogravure) or impressed (offset printing); rotary presses for colour-printing are equipped with several printing cylinders their inking rollers being placed side by side. Since all the printing pressing and inking mechanisms are rotary these
presses can be used for both sheet by sheet printing and continuous printing in black or in colour on both sides of paper fed by reels. Some large rotary presses which combine several printing units on a single frame enable all the pages of a newspaper or periodical to be printed in one sequence of operations so that in the final result all the pages are delivered cut folded assembled stapled and stacked by various ancillary machines working in conjunction with the printing machine.
(D) Ink-jet printing machines.
In these machines the desired characters are produced on paper by an ink- drop jet passing through a dot matrix.
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The above printing presses (particularly the small or medium-sized rotary presses) can be fitted with a series of making-up units arranged side by side with the printing units so that starting from say a single reel of paper complex products (e.g. box shapes packagings labels railway tickets) can be completed in one single and continuous operation.
In addition to the normal types of printing machines this heading also covers special machines such as :
(i) Machines for printing tin foil boxes or other containers.
(ii) Machines for printing clock or watch dials or other articles of special shapes.
(iii) Machines for printing on corks tubes candles etc.
(iv) Machines for marking clothing.
(v) Machines for printing book page signatures.
(vi) Numbering dating etc. machines (other than hand-operated date and similar stamps of heading 96.11) operating with irons bands of letters or figures etc. whether or not inked. (vii) Certain small office printing machines which operate by means of printing type or by the offset process and which are improperly referred to as " duplicating machines " because their operating principles and appearance are similar to those of duplicating machines.
This group also includes colour printing machines used to colour after they have been first printed in black and white special art editions playing cards children's illustrations etc. by means of stencils or stencil-plates the colour being applied by brushes rollers or by spraying. Machines for printing a repetitive design repetitive words or overall colour on textiles wallpaper wrapping paper linoleum leather etc. include :
(1) Block printing machines in which blocks engraved with the design generally in relief are repeatedly pressed on the cloth wallpaper etc. as it passes through the machine thus producing a continuous design; the same machines are also used for printing separate designs (e.g. on scarves or handkerchiefs).
(2) Roller printing machines usually consisting of a large central cylinder (pressure bowl) around the periphery of which is placed a series of engraved colour rollers each with its colour trough furnisher roller doctor blades etc.
(3) Screen printing machines. The material to be printed passes through the machine together with a stencil-screen band the colour being applied through the stencil.
(4) Warp printing machines which before weaving print a design on the sheet of parallel warp yarns unrolled from the warp beam.
(5) Yarn printing machines. These produce colour effects on the yarn (or sometimes on the roving before it is spun into yarn).
(II) MACHINES FOR USES ANCILLARY TO PRINTING
This group covers machines (whether or not presented separately) for uses ancillary to printing exclusively designed to operate with printing machines and used during or after the printing operation for feeding handling or further working the sheets or rolls of paper. These machines which are usually separate from the printing machine itself include :
(A) Stock or pile elevators. These comprise a kind of frame fitted with a moving tray containing the pile of blank sheets; the tray rises progressively as the printing proceeds and keeps the pile at a constant height in relation to the machine.
(B) Automatic feeders used for sheet by sheet printing. Their function is to grip the sheets in the pile one by one (usually by means of an arm with pneumatic suction cups) and feed them into the press perfectly centred. Frequently they are used in combination with a pile elevator.
(C) Sheet delivery mechanisms similar in design to feeders but carrying out the reverse process (i.e. they deliver and pile the printed sheets).
(D) Folders gummers perforators and staplers. These are often used at the delivery end of the printing machine to fold and staple or stitch printed pages (of newspapers folders periodicals etc.).
If however they are not designed exclusively for use in conjunction with a printing machine they are excluded (heading 84.40 or 84.41 as the case may be).
(E) Serial numbering machines small accessory machines operating with rolls of figures.
(F) Bronzing machines for the printing industry. These deposit metal powder on sheets as they emerge from the printing machine in which they have just been mordant-printed.
PARTS
Subject to the general provisions regarding the classification of parts (see the General Explanatory Note to Section XVI) the heading also covers parts of the machines of this heading.
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The heading also excludes :
(a)Cylinder blankets and covers of textile fabric rubberised textile fabric felt rubber etc. (classified according to the constituent material).
(b)Machines with an ancillary printing device e.g. certain bag filling or packing machines (heading 84.22); certain machines for making up paper or paperboard (heading 84.41). If presented separately the printing device remains classified in this heading provided it prints by one of the processes of the machines of this heading.
(c)Anti-smudging spraying machines (heading 84.24).
(d)Teleprinters and similar telegraphic or radio apparatus (heading 85.17 85.25 or 85.27).
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Subheading Explanatory Notes.
Subheadings 8443.11 8443.12 and 8443.19
These subheadings cover printing machinery in which the impression is obtained by means of a printing plate on which the design is reproduced in the flat i.e. in neither intaglio nor relief (offset printing process). The formation of the image to be printed is based on the principle of the mutual repulsion of water and fatty substances. The printing always performed on a rotary machine is not obtained by direct contact of the printing medium on the material to be printed but by intermediate transfer onto a rubber cylinder called a blanket which in turn transfers the image onto the matter to be printed. The machinery of these subheadings is characterised by the presence of the blanket and of a device used to continuously dampen the non-printing parts of the printing plate which is fixed to a metal cylinder. Offset printing machines can be fed by rolls or sheets.
Subheadings 8443.21 and 8443.29
Letterpress printing is a process whereby the ink is transferred under pressure to the printing surface from the raised parts of the type. The type consists of individual characters lines or image- bearing plates all of the same height. These subheadings do not however cover flexographic printing machinery.
Subheading 8443.30
Flexographic printing is a process employing the letterpress principle for simple work (printing of packaging forms leaflets etc.) and in which the printing plate is of rubber or thermoplastic material bonded directly to the impression cylinder. These machines are simpler and lighter than other printing presses; they print continuous webs of paper in one or more colours using an ink based on alcohol or other volatile solvents.
Subheading 8443.40
In gravure printing the ink accumulated in different volumes in engraved or etched parts of the printing plate is transferred by pressure onto the surface to be printed. This form of printing has its origins in line engraving and etching where a graver or an acid is used to incise lines of different depths in a polished copper plate. The surface of the plate remains free of ink which collects in the lines in sufficient quantity to yield an impression. The principle of gravure printing is similar to that of line engraving and etching. A rotary cylinder is used instead of the plate. The image or signs are transferred onto a cylindrical plate electroplated with copper by mechanical or photochemical means.
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