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by esafak 813 days ago
I have no idea why they shoehorned 3M into the article. Floppies rose and fell independently of 3M.
2 comments

If I picture a floppy it definitely has a 3M logo either on the paper label or stamped into the plastic.

But I'm with the sibling commenter to you who says 'adhesive tape' as the first thing '3M' brings to mind. People talk about '3M-backed X' to mean basically 'self-adhesive X' (and maybe express a preference for adhesive brand, but it's common enough the knock-offs use it as an SEO keyword too).

> If I picture a floppy it definitely has a 3M logo either on the paper label or stamped into the plastic.

I do remember seeing 3M floppies, but in my memory Verbatim were more common. And, in the 5.25 inch era, Nashua

3M is only interesting in retrospect. They were one of the first manufacturers to get out of the floppy business, but they also had some of the highest quality disks. So as soon as floppies started dying, the durability and quality fell off a cliff. But if you come across a 3M disk in the modern era (floppies are still used by textile equipment), it might actually store your data without breaking.
Actually I think they spun off their media business to imation who kept making CDs and floppies
The article points out how Imation was eventually bought out just for the trademark, so it sounds like they gave up on the manufacturing / material science and just became like any other floppy disk.