Paint Nozzle Parts Are 'Pump Blocks,' Not Heat Sinks, US Says

The U.S. pushed back against a paint nozzle importer Sept. 17 in a response to a motion for judgment, in which the importer argued one if its products -- parts of spray nozzles intended to control the flow of liquid paint -- fell into a heat sink manifold exclusion in an antidumping duty order on aluminum extrusions from China (Wagner Spray Tech Corp. v. U.S., CIT # 23-00241).

Importer Wagner Spray Tech described its products as “manifold heat sinks,” components attached to other devices to passively cool them down, in its December 2023 complaint (see 2312200049). It argued that the Commerce Department ruling found that the parts weren’t heat sinks and that wasn’t their primary intended purpose, but that this claim was wrong; in order to fall into the finished heat sink exclusion, an import must only be made from aluminum extrusions and have been designed, produced and fully tested to lower temperatures by a certain amount, it said.

Wagner argued that its imports met those specifications, but it was wrong, the government said. The importer also wrongly claimed that Commerce can’t rely on (k)(1) sources to expand the scope of the order, it said -- that wasn’t what Commerce was doing, it said.

Commerce’s scope ruling correctly found that the parts’ primary function was a “pump block,” which houses “essential components of the paint sprayers that regulate the flow and pressure of paint,” the U.S. said.

It denied that Wagner had actually proven that its components were fully tested to ensure they lowered the overall product’s temperature. And it also said again that Wagner hadn’t identified specific thermal thresholds for the imported component at issue, part number 805-324.

“Wagner improperly seeks to conflate the design and testing of the downstream product, the paint sprayer, with the design and testing that a heat sink would require to qualify as a finished heat sink,” it said.

The same was true regarding the specific thermal thresholds Wagner said applied to its products, the U.S. argued. The importer claimed that part 805-324 conforms with the temperature standards for vacuum pumps and painting equipment, called the UL 14450 temperature test requirements. But the subject merchandise is part 805-324 -- “not the paint sprayer, the downstream product incorporating the part,” it said.

Wagner’s claim that the “thermal performance requirements of [part number 805-324] are tied to the performance components that the [part number 805-324] is designed for,” other component parts of the paint sprayer, isn’t enough, it said. Being “tied to” thermal performance requirements is not the same as actually needing to meet those requirements, it said.

And Wagner was wrong that its product falls “plainly within the plain terms” of the AD order’s heat sink exclusion, barring Commerce from looking to (k)(1) sourcess, the government said. Commerce has the discretion to consider primary interpretive sources, it said, and it looked to the International Trade Commission’s injury report in this case, it said.

Duty orders are generally written in general language, so it is actually “likely” that Commerce will look to (k)(1) materials to interpret orders’ meanings, it said.