18 Jan
2016
18 Jan
'16
8:56 a.m.
On 1/18/2016 11:33 AM, Jon Elson wrote:
There was a tape sold by a few
manufacturers (I think 3M's was called
Black Watch) that had a coarse black
matte finish on the back side. A
problem with some drives which had
fast rewind speeds was that air was
trapped in the tape wind, and then
once a bunch more layers of tape was
wound on the reel, the tape wrap would
cinch and fold over a piece of tape.
This matte finish was supposed to cure
that, and I think it did. But, that
finish was not as durable as the
magnetic coating, and would start to
shed all over the drive, leaving stuff
on the data surface. I think about 5
years after the stuff came out, most
data centers searched out and trashed
all these tapes.
Jon
Interesting. I just happen to have a 3M
Black Watch tape right here next to me
that I'm using to test a Mark 300 tape
cleaning machine. The tape so far is
fine, not shedding anything front or back.
- J.