8486.20.12.00: Machines for making semiconductor devices/ICs: Step and repeat aligners

1. This chapter does not cover:

1. (a) millstones, grindstones or other articles of Chapter 68;

2. (b) machinery or appliances (for example, pumps) of ceramic material and ceramic parts of machinery or appliances of any material (Chapter 69);

3. (c) laboratory glassware (heading 7017); machinery, appliances or other articles for technical uses or parts thereof, of glass (heading 7019 or 7020);

4. (d) articles of heading 7321 or 7322 or similar articles of other base metals (Chapters 74 to 76 or 78 to 81);

5. (e) vacuum cleaners of heading 8508;

6. (f) electromechanical domestic appliances of heading 8509; digital cameras of heading 8525;

7. (g) radiators for the articles of Section XVII; or

8. (h) hand-operated mechanical floor sweepers, not motorised (heading 9603).

2. Subject to the operation of note 3 to Section XVI and subject to note 11 to this chapter, a machine or appliance which answers to a description in one or more of the headings 8401 to 8424, or heading 8486 and at the same time to a description in one or more of the headings 8425 to 8480 is to be classified under the appropriate heading of the former group or under heading 8486, as the case may be, and not the latter group.

1. (A) Heading 8419 does not, however, cover:

   1. (a) germination plant, incubators or brooders (heading 8436);

   2. (b) grain dampening machines (heading 8437);

   3. (c) diffusing apparatus for sugar juice extraction (heading 8438);

   4. (d) machinery for the heat-treatment of textile yarns, fabrics or made up textile articles (heading 8451); or

   5. (e) machinery, plant or laboratory equipment, designed for a mechanical operation, in which a change of temperature, even if necessary, is subsidiary.

2. (B) Heading 8422 does not cover:

   1. (a) sewing machines for closing bags or similar containers (heading 8452); or

   2. (b) office machinery of heading 8472.

3. (C) Heading 8424 does not cover:

   1. (a) ink-jet printing machines (heading 8443); or

   2. (b) water-jet cutting machines (heading 8456).

3. A machine tool for working any material which answers to a description in heading 8456 and at the same time to a description in heading 8457, 8458, 8459, 8460, 8461, 8464 or 8465 is to be classified in heading 8456.

4. Heading 8457 applies only to machine tools for working metal, other than lathes (including turning centres), which can carry out different types of machining operations either:

1. (a) by automatic tool change from a magazine or the like in conformity with a machining programme (machining centres);

2. (b) by the automatic use, simultaneously or sequentially, of different unit heads working on a fixed position workpiece (unit construction machines, single station); or

3. (c) by the automatic transfer of the workpiece to different unit heads (multi-station transfer machines).

5. For the purposes of heading 8462, a ‘slitting line’ for flat products is a processing line composed of an uncoiler, a coil flattener, a slitter and a recoiler. A ‘cut-to-length line’ for flat products is a processing line composed of an uncoiler, a coil flattener, and a shear.

6.

(A) For the purposes of heading 8471, the expression ‘automatic data-processing machines’ means machines, capable of

1. (1) storing the processing program or programs and at least the data immediately necessary for the execution of the program;

2. (2) being freely programmed in accordance with the requirements of the user;

3. (3) performing arithmetical computations specified by the user; and

4. (4) executing, without human intervention, a processing program which requires them to modify their execution, by logical decision during the processing run.

(B) Automatic data-processing machines may be in the form of systems consisting of a variable number of separate units.

(C) Subject to paragraph (D) and (E) below, a unit is to be regarded as being a part of an automatic data-processing system if it meets all of the following conditions:

1. (1) it is of a kind solely or principally used in an automatic data-processing system;

2. (2) it is connectable to the central processing unit either directly or through one or more other units; and

3. (3) it is able to accept or deliver data in a form (codes or signals) which can be used by the system.

Separately presented units of an automatic data-processing machine are to be classified in heading 8471.

However keyboards, X-Y coordinate input devices and disk storage units which satisfy the conditions of paragraphs (C)(2) and (C)(3) above, are in all cases to be classified as units of heading 8471.

(D) Heading 8471 does not cover the following when presented separately, even if they meet all of the conditions set forth in note 6(C) above:

1. (1) printers, copying machines, facsimile machines, whether or not combined;

2. (2) apparatus for the transmission or reception of voice, images or other data, including apparatus for communication in a wired or wireless network (such as a local or wide area network);

3. (3) loudspeakers and microphones;

4. (4) television cameras, digital cameras and video camera recorders;

5. (5) monitors and projectors, not incorporating television reception apparatus.

(E) Machines incorporating or working in conjunction with an automatic data-processing machine and performing a specific function other than data processing are to be classified in the headings appropriate to their respective functions or, failing that, in residual headings.

7. Heading 8482 applies, inter alia, to polished steel balls, the maximum and minimum diameters of which do not differ from the nominal diameter by more than 1 % or by more than 0,05 mm, whichever is less.

Other steel balls are to be classified in heading 7326.

8. A machine which is used for more than one purpose is, for the purposes of classification, to be treated as if its principal purpose were its sole purpose.

Subject to note 2 to this chapter and note 3 to Section XVI, a machine the principal purpose of which is not described in any heading or for which no one purpose is the principal purpose is, unless the context otherwise requires, to be classified in heading 8479. Heading 8479 also covers machines for making rope or cable (for example, stranding, twisting or cabling machines) from metal wire, textile yarn or any other material or from a combination of such materials.

9. For the purposes of heading 8470, the term ‘pocket-size’ applies only to machines the dimensions of which do not exceed 170 mm × 100 mm × 45 mm.

10. For the purposes of heading 8485, the expression ‘additive manufacturing’ (also referred to as 3D printing) means the formation of physical objects, based on a digital model, by the successive addition and layering, and consolidation and solidification, of material (for example, metal, plastics or ceramics).

Subject to note 1 to Section XVI and note 1 to Chapter 84, machines answering to the description in heading 8485 are to be classified in that heading and in no other heading of the nomenclature.

11.

(A) Notes 12(a) and 12(b) to Chapter 85 also apply with respect to the expressions ‘semiconductor devices’ and ‘electronic integrated circuits’, respectively, as used in this note and in heading 8486. However, for the purposes of this note and of heading 8486, the expression ‘semiconductor devices’ also covers photosensitive semiconductor devices and light-emitting diodes (LED).

(B) For the purposes of this note and of heading 8486, the expression ‘manufacture of flat panel displays’ covers the fabrication of substrates into a flat panel. It does not cover the manufacture of glass or the assembly of printed circuit boards or other electronic components onto the flat panel. The expression ‘flat panel display’ does not cover cathode-ray tube technology.

(C) Heading 8486 also includes machines and apparatus solely or principally of a kind used for:

1. (1) the manufacture or repair of masks and reticles;

2. (2) assembling semiconductor devices or electronic integrated circuits;

3. (3) lifting, handling, loading or unloading of boules, wafers, semiconductor devices, electronic integrated circuits and flat panel displays.

(D) Subject to note 1 to Section XVI and note 1 to Chapter 84, machines and apparatus answering to the description in heading 8486 are to be classified in that heading and in no other heading of the nomenclature.