• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Strange things about 3M QIC data cartridge tape

S

sunjar

Member
Joined
Jul 12, 2022
Messages
24
Hi,all:
I recently got a Tandberg TDC-3820 tape drive and some matching QIC data cartridge tapes, the tapes model are '3M DC6150', and they look like they're 150MB capacity. These tapes are all brand new and unopened. Each comes in individual carton packs. After unpacking the carton, there is also a protective film on the plastic box packaging of the tape. When I tore off this plastic protective film, I felt that my hands were very slippery, as if I had touched some special oil. and this slippery feeling was very uncomfortable.

As a last resort I took the tapes out and soaped the plastic boxes in the sink, which took me about 5 minutes per box. Then I felt a little better, they didn't seem to be that slippery anymore. I packed them up and went to bed. But when I got up again, I felt that slippery feeling in my hands again. It's such a bad feeling, I was wondering if anyone has experience with this tape? Or encountered something similar? What material is this strange box made of?

Thank you.
 

Attachments

  • DC6150.jpg
    DC6150.jpg
    120.1 KB · Views: 8
Got a pile of those, none of the containers seem slippery. I believe those are HDPE, which does slowly degrade. All those wonderful long-chain polymers slowly unravel. Usually the result is that the stuff gets brittle and starts cracking.
Try wiping them down with some isopropanol.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Got a pile of those, none of the containers seem slippery. I believe those are HDPE, which does slowly degrade. All those wonderful long-chain polymers slowly unravel. Usually the result is that the stuff gets brittle and starts cracking.
Try wiping them down with some isopropanol.
Click to expand...
Hi, Chuck(G):

Thanks for you reply, I also think that plastic box is made of HDPE, but I don't recall that HDPE material can get slippery, even if they were kept for a long time (maybe over 20 years? For 150MB storage capacity). Or maybe it's the material of that plastic protective film?
 
I recently pulled out my stash of QIC-80 tape cassettes, and they weren't all stored in a great environment, but were bagged up well enough. Even with huge swings in temp, not one the cases feel greasy. If anything they are "squeeky", almost overly dry.

Strange...
 
sunjar said:
Hi, Chuck(G):

Thanks for you reply, I also think that plastic box is made of HDPE, but I don't recall that HDPE material can get slippery, even if they were kept for a long time (maybe over 20 years? For 150MB storage capacity). Or maybe it's the material of that plastic protective film?
Click to expand...
Hard to say since I've never seen this--and I've got everything from DC-300 to Magnus carts, including your 3M DC-6150 ones and nothing like this has ever happened to me.
Could have been a bad day at the plastics plant.
 
twolazy said:
I recently pulled out my stash of QIC-80 tape cassettes, and they weren't all stored in a great environment, but were bagged up well enough. Even with huge swings in temp, not one the cases feel greasy. If anything they are "squeeky", almost overly dry.

Strange...
Click to expand...
Yes, it's weird. I got my hands on the DC6150 once a few years ago, but I don't remember feeling slippery at the time. I bought a few more boxes of SONY's QIC tapes, and I'll see what happens when they arrive in the next few days.
 
Chuck(G) said:
Hard to say since I've never seen this--and I've got everything from DC-300 to Magnus carts, including your 3M DC-6150 ones and nothing like this has ever happened to me.
Could have been a bad day at the plastics plant.
Click to expand...
Yes, very bad felling, I bought a few more boxes of SONY's QIC tapes, and I'll see what happens when they arrive in the next few days.
 
I used those in the past and never recalled any "slippery" issues with them. That was also a long time ago in the 1990's and early 2000's.
 
I know this. I have some NOS QIC tapes as well as many DVD cases with that behavious. On DVD cases, it's always happening on the inside. Must be the plasticizer leaking out.
 
Timo W. said:
I know this. I have some NOS QIC tapes as well as many DVD cases with that behavious. On DVD cases, it's always happening on the inside. Must be the plasticizer leaking out.
Click to expand...
This is the first time I heard about plasticizers, so I searched the Internet and found that there are four types of plasticizers, and they are harmful to a certain extent. I suspect that 3M's cartridge tape boxes were made of different materials, depending on the country of origin, because I remembered that I touched a few 3M DC6150 cartridge tapes in the same way in 2019, and the box wasn't slippery at all.

Although I cleaned the boxes for few minutes, will it reappear with plasticizer leaks in the future? Is this substance harmful to the human body? Should I just throw away the boxes and just keep the tapes.
 
Cleaning does not help. Due to the age of the plastic case (and how it was stored etc.), the plasticizer will keep leaking until nothing is left. You can try special plastic cleaners made e.g. for cars (from "303" or whatever is available in your country). They can close the pores of the plastic and stop further leaking.

Not sure how harmful it is, but if you clean your hands afterwards, it's probably not a big deal. On the DVD cases I have with that issue, you can even see the oily film. I never cared much - I just try not to touch it. ;)

The QIC tapes I own are not even from 3M. One is Sony, the other I don't remember. I think the plastic cases were off-the-shelf parts anyway.
 
I received a few more Sony QIC tapes today, and they came in very nice boxes without any slippery feeling. I also got two Imation SLR7 tapes, they are the same size as the QIC, but sadly they also have a slippery packaging problem.

Since there is no more information on harm of plasticizers, I decided to use some plastic bags to store these 3M and Imation tapes. I wrapped those slippery boxes in a bigger plastic bag and threw it in a corner of my basement.

End of story...
 

Attachments

  • IMG_20220715_084406.jpg
    IMG_20220715_084406.jpg
    246.4 KB · Views: 3
  • IMG_20220715_084532.jpg
    IMG_20220715_084532.jpg
    260.7 KB · Views: 3
Last edited:
I wonder if they person that used the tapes used hand lotion. My mom was one of the early female admins. She would tends to use it almost daily, and most the computer stuff she owned was slightly slippery like it breaks down the plastic... flipping through all the printouts would make her hands dry. Just an idea.
 
Ya I agree with AL here, and he has a good point. Might be better just to toss the cases before they contaminate the tapes too.
 
twolazy said:
My mom was one of the early female admins. She would tends to use it almost daily,
Click to expand...
Your mom or other admins shouldn't have this problem because it takes time to leak out the plastic boxes, for my packet box they are over 25 years old by now.
 
Al Kossow said:
you are going to find that the inside of those bags will collect an oily residue over time.
Click to expand...
residue? you mean the residue from old plastic boxes? Will They attach to the tape and start contaminating my new plastic bag again?
 
twolazy said:
Ya I agree with AL here, and he has a good point. Might be better just to toss the cases before they contaminate the tapes too.
Click to expand...
I really like those old QIC tape and my tape drive, but In this situation, maybe I should just throw all this stuff away, I still have some Sony tape without this issue.
 
Before you toss the tapes, try running one through a drive. If you can read and write it without issues, keep the tapes; toss the boxes. Eventually, the tension band will degrade anyway. I can still read tapes I wrote in 1987--and they're packaged in those cases--but they're not sticky.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top