SMPTE Type D-1 Cassette Design Considerations

The story of the D-1 cassette begins more than a century ago in the steaming jungles of South Asia where the secretions of millions of lac insects were harvested to meet the industrial world's need for shellac. Used in finishing varnishes, shellac in its molded form was made into electrical insulation fittings. However, as demand grew there was intense pressure put on the supply of lac and with a sense of urgency matched only with our desire to get to the moon, there was launched a frantic search for a synthetic shellac. Forty years later we were presented with the gift, plastic, a material par excellence of the twentieth century. The first form of plastic was Bakelite, invented in 1907 by a Belgian born chemist named Leo Hendrick. Bakelite was an instant success seized upon by the industry for uses ranging from pot handles to billiard balls. The age of plastic was born and the first decision was made on the SMPTE D-1 cassette. Certainly the plastic developed by Leo Hendrick is not the same plastic that we know today. The plastic used in the SMPTE D-1 cassette is an ABS high impact type plastic that has a high resistancy to shattering and has a high dimensional stability when subjected to the rigors of our environment. Now to describe perhaps some of the more salient features of the D-1 cassette as it exists in 1986.

Published

1986-02

Content type

Original Research

DOI

10.5594/M00767

ISBN

978-1-61482-915-7