Not sure for how long your regulatory rules state that you need to keep the 
archived data on your 3592 cartridges but:

a) The lifetime of a cartridge(or, the data stored on it) can be counted from 
the first use, not the production date. The physical cartridge itself wont 
break down into dust, but the magnetics on the tape will sooner or later be 
unreadable.

b) If you need to keep data for a very long tape, I suggest you get another 
media than using magnetic tapes. The lifetime of the data stored on the tape is 
quite limited comparted to MO media or something similar.

Best Regards

Daniel



Daniel Sparrman
Exist i Stockholm AB
Växel: 08-754 98 00
Fax: 08-754 97 30
daniel.sparrman AT exist DOT se
http://www.existgruppen.se
Posthusgatan 1 761 30 NORRTÄLJE



-----"ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU> skrev: -----


Till: ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU
Från: Mehdi Salehi <ezzobad AT GMAIL DOT COM>
Sänt av: "ADSM: Dist Stor Manager" <ADSM-L AT VM.MARIST DOT EDU>
Datum: 10/01/2011 10:36
Ärende: [ADSM-L] the production date of a cartridge

Hi,
Is there any way to determine the age of a cartridge? We know the purchase
date, but it does not necessarily mean that the cartdige has been
manufactured around the same date. Maybe it has been stored for a long time
before we get it. To be more precise, we have thousands of 3592 cartridges
for old J1A cartridges. In order to make sure whether archive data is safe
during the period that regulatory states, it is essential to know when a
cartridge is physically "dead".

Regards,
Mehdi