51.05 ‑ Wool and fine or coarse animal hair, carded or combed (including combed wool in fragments)
This heading covers :(1) Wool and fine or coarse animal hair (including waste and garnetted stock), carded preparatory to woollen spinning. (2) Wool and fine animal hair, combed following the "preparing" (gilling) or carding process. The purpose of carding (on special carding machines) is to disentangle the fibres, lay them more or less parallel, and entirely or largely free them from any extraneous matter (mostly vegetable) which they may still contain. The fibres are then in the form of webs. If "woollen" products (i.e., those which have been carded only) are required, the web of fibres is divided lengthwise into numerous elements which are then rolled or rubbed into the form of slubbings to increase the cohesion of the fibres and to facilitate their spinning into yarns. The slubbings are wound onto bobbins and can be used without further operation for spinning into woollen yarns. If, on the contrary, combed products (worsted) are required, two alternative processes may be adopted, viz., either the carded webs are combed or, alternatively, the wool or animal hair is not first carded but before combing undergoes a "preparing" process in which the material is treated in gilling machines (also known as "gill boxes") which open out and straighten the fibres. During the subsequent combing operation, the short fibres are eliminated, principally in the form of noils, while the remaining fibres are laid parallel in the form of a sliver. Any remaining vegetable impurities are also removed along with the noils. The combed sliver is then drafted and gilled to ensure a complete mixing of the fibres of various lengths, and the resulting sliver is wound into the form of a ball, known as a "top". Materials, chiefly hairs, which will not ball easily often leave this stage in the form of compressed coils, tightly tied between two sheets of paper, and known as "bumped tops". The combed products are put through a series of drawing and doubling operations which convert them into rovings. These are wound onto bobbins in readiness for spinning into worsted yarns. This heading covers the slubbings, carded slivers, tops and rovings referred to above, and also cut or broken tops and cut or broken carded slivers which have been deliberately cut or broken into short uniform lengths. This heading also covers combed wool in fragments, sometimes known as "combed wool in bulk", "scoured deburred wool" or "open tops". This wool, generally scoured, is wool which has been mechanically deburred by utilising part of the production line machinery (carding and combing) used to produce wool tops for worsted spinning. After leaving the combing machine, the continuous sliver produced is stretched and broken into irregular fluffy fragments which are then baled. The product is of short fibre length (average fibre length less than 45 mm) and is suitable for woollen or cotton system spinning but not for worsted spinning. It must, therefore, be re‑carded before spinning. In appearance it resembles fluffy scoured wool with no vegetable material evident. It should be noted that certain rovings may have much the same diameter as single yarns of headings 51.06 to 51.10 and may also be slightly twisted, but since they have not yet been spun they do not constitute yarns and therefore remain in this heading. Processes such as bleaching and dyeing do not affect the classification of the products in this heading. The heading does not include :(a) Wadding (heading 30.05 or 56.01). (b) Wool prepared for use in making wigs or the like (heading 67.03). Subheading Explanatory Note. Subheading 5105.31 The provisions of the Explanatory Note to subheading 5102.11 apply, mutatis mutandis, to the products of this subheading.
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