This heading covers wire, rods, tubes, plates, electrodes and similar products, of base metal or of metal carbides, of a kind used for soldering, brazing, welding or deposition of metal or of metal carbides, provided they are coated or cored with flux material; in the latter case, the outer part is usually composed of a tube or sometimes of a spirally wrapped strip. Wire, rods, tubes, plates, electrodes, etc., of base metal not coated or cored with flux material are excluded (Chapters 72 to 76 and 78 to 81).
The materials used for coating or coring are the flux (e.g., zinc chloride, ammonium chloride, borax, quartz, resin or lanolin) which would otherwise have to be added separately during the soldering, brazing, welding or deposition process. The electrodes, etc., may also contain the additive metal in powder form. In electric welding, the coating may also contain some heat-resistant material (asbestos, etc.) to direct the electric arc onto the part to be welded. For electric arc-welding, coated electrodes or cored wire are used. The former consists of a metal core and a coating of non-metal material which may be of various thicknesses and compositions. Cored wire is a hollow product filled with material similar to that used for the coating of electrodes. This wire is presented in coils or on spools. Prepared metal brazing plates are inserted between the parts to be joined (usually for iron or steel). They consist of a metal strip, wire cloth or grill, coated with the flux; they may be specially shaped for use, or in strip form suitable for cutting as required. The heading also includes wire and rods obtained by extruding base metal powder (usually nickel) agglomerated with an excipient based on plastics, and used for spraying metal onto various materials (e.g., metals or cement). The heading does not cover wire and rods of cored solder where, apart from flux material, the solder consists of an alloy containing 2 % or more by weight of any one precious metal (Chapter 71).
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