Hello Mark>>>>>
> Here is some input regarding DAK brand cassettes from
> someone who was involved DAKs tape operation.
> The early DAK 60/90 cassettes were brown oxide in sealed
> housings that were actually BASF relabeled. The Basf 120s
> had screw housing same brown oxide. The biggest
> problem is the leader pulls off the hubs due to the little
> round holding pin that attaches the leader to the hub.
> There is some leader to tape glue seepage that sticks the
> hub to the liner. No way to free this up you have to re
> assemble these in new housings.
> DAKs second generation cassettes all have screw
> housings. At this point DAK began coating their own stock
> with 6 and 9 inch width webs of mylar (Dupont) or
> other polyester film. The webs were rewound after coating
> and leader film was spliced into the whole width. The
> web was then slit to cassette width. A major problem was the
> splicing tape was the same width of the tape and would
> eventually ooze adhesive and bind up the hub inside
> the housing. The saving grace is the screw housing and a
> little solvent on a cotton swab will get the adhesive
> off the slip liner.
> The third generation had black oxide for improved
> frequency response. These were still web coated but better
> splicing tape was used and didnt bleed adhesive as bad.
> All the DAK in house coated tapes have a tendency to
> cup where any of the oxide is exposed to the air. This is
> due to the binder drying out. If wound this is not as much a
> problem.
> In the final output stage we used Ampex duplication grade
> bulk cassette tape with automatic in cassette winders. These
> use splicing tape narrower than the tape width and no hub
> sticking problems. The Ampex tape seemed pretty stable
> I have these tapes that are at least 20 years old in good
> condition.
> I hope this contributes to your knowledge
> base...
> dnw
>
> Ps as i remember blue leader = 120, yellow = 90, red
> = 60 for the DAK coated stock .... ill have to double
> check, now where did i leave my glasses???? my memory
> fades at 80.
> If you want any other DAK info ping me.
>
>
