Point of order for the dummies: what is a tape seal? Sellam
On Mon, Nov 14, 2022 at 8:36 AM Chuck Guzis via cctalk < cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote: > On 11/14/22 04:25, 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. > > > > I wrote about this problem here at least 2 or 3 years ago, Although > there must have been millions of these soft seals manufactured (that's > not an exaggeration; the US government, for example, used hundreds of > thousands of them). And yes, the IBM autoloader tape seal(for 3400 > series drives) is very durable--I haven't seen many of these fail. > > But what I call the "Wright Line" PVC tape seal will age out and > eventually crack and break. Usually this occurs where the "hook" is > attached, due to the attachment being a hole punched in the PVC belt. > On a couple of occasions, I've had the seals split longitudinally. This > is almost epidemic on 1960s and 70s 7 track tapes, due to their age. > > Locating replacements has proven to be an exercise in futility, > particularly when one realizes that even relatively new ones are doomed > to fail. > > What I've done for customers is return their 10.5" reels in 16mm > plastic tape "cans" in the 800' size. The fit is perfect and I've > received no complaints. Film "cans" for smaller reels are also > available. My source for these is Urbanski Film, although there are > other vendors--and the "cans" are still being manufactured. > > --Chuck > > > > >
