HEADING 68.12 - FABRICATED ASBESTOS FIBRES; MIXTURES WITH A BASIS OF ASBESTOS OR WITH A BASIS OF ASBESTOS AND MAGNESIUM CARBONATE; ARTICLES OF SUCH MIXTURES OR OF ASBESTOS (FOR EXAMPLE THREAD WOVEN FABRIC CLOTHING HEADGEAR FOOTWEAR GASKETS) WHETHER OR NOT REINFORCED OTHER THAN GOODS OF HEADING No. 68.11 OR 68.13.
130 COMMODITIES
6812.10 - Fabricated asbestos fibres; mixtures with a basis of asbestos or with a basis of asbestos and magnesium carbonate
6812.20 - Yarn and thread
6812.30 - Cords and string whether or not plaited
6812.40 - Woven or knitted fabric
6812.50 - Clothing clothing accessories footwear and headgear
6812.60 - Paper millboard and felt
6812.70 - Compressed asbestos fibre jointing in sheets or rolls
6812.90 - Other
This heading covers asbestos fibres further worked than beaten cleaned sorted or graded (e.g. carded fibres and dyed fibres). They may be for any purpose (e.g. for spinning felting etc. or for use as filtering insulating packing etc. materials). Crude asbestos fibres or those simply graded according to length beaten or cleaned are excluded (heading 25.24).
The heading also includes mixtures of asbestos with magnesium carbonate cellulose fibres sawdust pumice stone talc plaster siliceous fossil earths slag aluminium oxide glass fibres cork etc. used as packing for heat-insulation purposes or as filtering material or as a basis for moulding asbestos articles.
But in particular the heading covers a range of articles of asbestos either alone or mixed as in the preceding paragraph and often also with natural resins plastics sodium silicate asphalt or rubber etc. These articles may be made by felting spinning twisting plaiting weaving making up or moulding.
Asbestos paper board and felt are usually obtained by crushing the fibres into pulp which is then formed and pressed into sheets as in the preparation of asbestos-cement sheets (heading 68.11). Boards are also obtained by bonding superimposed layers of asbestos sheets with plastics. These products differ from those of heading 68.11 in that the separate asbestos fibres can be readily distinguished. They may be in rolls sheets or plates or may be cut to shape in the form of strips frames discs rings etc.
In the manufacture of yarn single or multiple the asbestos fibres are beaten carded and then spun. As asbestos fibres cannot be drawn long fibres are used for spinning while the shorter fibres are used for the manufacture of board felt paper asbestos cement or asbestos powder.
Other asbestos articles of this heading include cords plaits pads; fabric in the piece or cut to shape; strips sheaths tubing conduits tube joints; containers; rods slabs tiles; packing joints (other than gaskets and similar joints of metal and asbestos and sets of gaskets and joints of heading 84.84); filter blocks; table-mats; protective clothing headgear and footwear for firemen industrial chemical civil defence workers etc. (e.g. jackets trousers aprons sleeves gloves mitts gaiters hoods and masks usually with mica eyepieces helmets boots with asbestos uppers or soles); mattresses; firemen's shields fire-extinguishing sheets theatre curtains iron spheres and cones coated with asbestos for fighting fire in gas mains.
All these articles may be reinforced with metal (often with brass or zinc wire) or with some other material (e.g. textile or glass fibres); they may also be coated with grease talc graphite or rubber or be varnished bronzed coloured in the mass polished drilled milled or otherwise worked.
In addition to the articles excluded by the General Explanatory Note the heading also excludes :
(a)Asbestos powder or flakes (heading 25.24).
(b)Materials and articles essentially of plastics even if containing asbestos as a filler (CHAPTER 39).
(c)Articles of asbestos-cement (heading 68.11).
(d)Friction material with a basis of asbestos (heading 68.13).