Freezer racks used at a food production facility qualify as industrial machinery and are therefore exempt from Tennessee sales and use tax. The freezer racks qualify as equipment necessary to the taxpayer’s processing operation because they allow the taxpayer to freeze products in an efficient manner. The freezing of food products that the taxpayer produces, along with keeping the products in a frozen condition, constitutes processing for purposes of the industrial machinery sales and use tax exemption. The maintenance of the products in a frozen state, and therefore the manufacturing process, continues until the products are removed from the racks. The freezer racks don’t qualify as storage because at least 90% of their use occurs during the manufacturing process. (Letter Ruling No. 13-02, Tennessee Department of Revenue, January 9, 2013)