14 Nov
2022
14 Nov
'22
7:19 a.m.
On 11/14/22 06:25, Shoppa, Tim via cctalk wrote:
I've been reporting on 9-track tape seal failures
over at least the past 2 decades here.
I first noticed the problem in the very early 2000's, and thought it was just random
onesy-twosy failures, possibly contributed to by ozone in LA region, but over the past 20
years the failures have progressed.
Sometime in the past couple weeks the last of my "soft" 9-track tape seals
failed, because there is nothing but broken tape seals left hanging in the Wright-Line
rack that had all my "new" aka 3M Blackwatch 703 tapes.
Very very few of the older (I think of them as IBM or 70's/80's style) "hard
plastic" tape seals failed.
Yup, these seals were under tension. I think the failure
mechanism is the square holes in the seal band develop
cracks at the outer corners, and the tension continues to
expand the crack.
Jon