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 68.11 or 68.13.
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. For a description of crocidolite asbestos, see the Explanatory Note to heading 25.24. 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).
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