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Quality of KAO Brand 3.5" Floppies

To answer the question, I usually consult my archive and read the brands of those floppies still survivng. I realize it's very subjective, but since the disks were sent to me by other people, it's a pretty good metric.

I don't have any KAO floppies, although I remember seeing them. Take it for what it's worth.
 
During the 1980s, its hit products Merries diapers, Attack detergent, Biore daily skincare and Biore U daily body care, Curel (1986) and Sofina cosmetics were launched. During this time, Kao engaged in several joint ventures (haircare in Europe, Nivea in Japan with Beiersdorf), and acquisitions (Andrew Jergens Company in 1988, Goldwell AG in 1989) in North America and Europe. During this period, Kao also expanded to the manufacture of floppy disks.

During the 1990s and 2000s, the company expanded into China and Vietnam - countries that, during that time, were opening up their economies to the rest of the world. Also, the company expanded into food products with Econa and Healthya. It also continued to acquire businesses (John Frieda in 2002, Molton Brown in 2005, and Kanebo Cosmetics in 2006).

In September 2009 Kao recalled its Econa cooking oil products after it was revealed in the media that one of its ingredients becomes carcinogenic after digestion. According to the media reports, Econa contained from 10 to 182 times the amount of glycidol fatty acid esters found in regular cooking oils. Kao also removed the tokuho, or government "healthy food" designation from the product's label. Problems with the product had first been revealed in 2002, but the company did not take action until 2009, for unexplained reasons.
Click to expand...

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kao-Corporation/104094329626685

Wow! O_O

I wonder how much of the glycidol was reused in food from making the floppy diskette housings...
 
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"During this period, Kao also expanded to the manufacture of floppy disks."

Hmm. Totally out of their field of expertise. Sounds like they got into this market by acquiring some small company or contracted through one of the major manufacturers.

I haven't heard anything bad about their floppies and the 3.5" 720K floppies aren't that plentiful anymore.
 
I realise itce a good while after the initial thread, but regarding KAO Floppy Disks, I can confirm they were excellent quality at the time. I don't know how time will have affected any floppy disks from that time.
They came to market round the time that Atari / Amiga's early apples were sold and extended well into the 1990's.
As a business we sold many many 100,000's at a time when many disks were dubious quality, and TDK one of the leading makes were rather expensive.
We were asked By the suppliers KAO UK to repport back if any faulties were being reported.... to be honest none were ever brought back, whereas some cheaper brands were often complained about. We sold both retails packs of 10's and bulk multi coloured boxes of 500 without any failures.
Like said, i have no idea how the ageing thing will affect them. CD's we were told would have a 100 year life, yet data started falling apart after just a few years, even on well treat disks.!!! best wishes out there Ed.
 
I opened a drawer of about 800 3.5" floppies and examined the labels. No KAO, even through I know we bought them. Mostly Sony and some 3M/Imation. I suspect that the number of sources for the raw media consolidated overseas in the 90s. Media formations did change during the late 80s and early 90s.

Same in 5.25" for brands such as Elephant, Brown, etc. I had them; none persisted. There still i s a fair population of Dysan floppies, though I don't see any in the 3.5"--I recall that they moved operations overseas in the early 90s.

I don't have to talk about Wabash, although their 9 track tape was respectable.
 
I always found that Verbatim disks held up well and didn't seem to develop errors as quickly as some cheaper brands.
 
Here's something that I observe in 1.44M 3.5" floppies, particularly in "new" stock.

You can format and read one of these it seems, ad infinitum, but if you low-level format or rewrite them frequently, their useful life will be quite short. Has anyone done any work on the stresses of writing on floppy media? I'm sitting here staring at a pile of about 50 Maxell HD floppies from a batch I purchased abotu 10 years ago. None can be successfully formatted, although I still have a few written back then that read perfectly.
 
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