WEBVTT - Why Don't All Cans Have Pull-Tabs? 0:00:01.840 --> 0:00:07.160 Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of iHeartRadio, Hey brain 0:00:07.200 --> 0:00:13.040 Stuff Laurin Vogel bomb here. Aluminum cans are convenient, inexpensive, 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:17.320 and generally sanitary ways to package and transport many foods 0:00:17.320 --> 0:00:21.480 and drinks. Now. Canning technology has existed since the first 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:24.919 decade of the eighteen hundreds, but the ruttary blade can 0:00:24.920 --> 0:00:27.960 opener that we're familiar with today wasn't invented until the 0:00:28.000 --> 0:00:32.440 eighteen seventies. For the seventy some intervening years, there were 0:00:32.680 --> 0:00:36.000 likely a lot of bashed or cut fingers from hammers 0:00:36.000 --> 0:00:41.120 and chisels, knives, and other less specialized or less safe tools. 0:00:42.520 --> 0:00:46.120 These days, can openers are widely available, but not every 0:00:46.159 --> 0:00:49.360 can needs one. Many canned foods and drinks come with 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:53.280 a poll tab that's even more convenient. So why do 0:00:53.400 --> 0:00:57.680 some cans have them and others don't. The short answer 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:00.640 is money, But for the long answer, let's look at 0:01:00.640 --> 0:01:04.959 the history of this innovation. The story goes that in 0:01:05.080 --> 0:01:08.880 nineteen fifty nine, a humble engineer from Dayton, Ohio, by 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:12.280 the name of Ernie Fras was enjoying a family picnic 0:01:12.440 --> 0:01:14.960 when he realized that he'd forgotten to bring a church 0:01:15.040 --> 0:01:18.759 key you see, although beer had cut in cans starting 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:22.360 in nineteen thirty five, those cans had solid lids, the 0:01:22.400 --> 0:01:26.040 same as any other can. To access the contents, you'd 0:01:26.120 --> 0:01:28.640 use a tool called a church key that would pop 0:01:28.680 --> 0:01:32.000 a hole in the lid. These are still sometimes used, 0:01:32.080 --> 0:01:36.080 especially in bars, to open things like canned pineapple juice. 0:01:37.400 --> 0:01:40.679 But so at this picnic, a Phrase searched in vain 0:01:40.800 --> 0:01:43.319 for something to open his beer with and settled on 0:01:43.400 --> 0:01:46.240 the bumper of his car, which resulted in a messy 0:01:46.440 --> 0:01:51.000 geyser of beer. Always the engineer, Phrase vowed to come 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:53.160 up with an invention that would eliminate the need for 0:01:53.200 --> 0:01:59.000 a church key altogether. In nineteen sixty three, he patented 0:01:59.160 --> 0:02:02.760 the easy Open Been lid, a which, similar to modern 0:02:02.800 --> 0:02:05.720 beer and soda cans, had a shape scored into the 0:02:05.760 --> 0:02:09.040 top and a polltab riveted onto that shape at one end, 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:12.760 so by pulling the tab, the weakened parts of the 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:16.000 aluminum would give way and you could peel the scorge 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:20.480 shape off, leaving a hole in the lid. Phrase's first 0:02:20.480 --> 0:02:24.720 customer was Iron City Beer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, which marketed 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:29.840 this revolutionary poll tab technology as the snaptop. Frase would 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:33.160 pass away in nineteen eighty nine, but his company DRT 0:02:33.800 --> 0:02:37.280 is still making its patented easy open ends for food 0:02:37.320 --> 0:02:41.920 and beverage cans. For the article this episode is based 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:44.800 on How Stuffworks, spoke with Tom Cruthers, who's worked at 0:02:44.880 --> 0:02:48.400 DRT for forty years, most recently as its VP of sales. 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:52.440 They asked him why, at nearly sixty years after the 0:02:52.440 --> 0:02:56.240 invention of the easy open can, only some canned foods 0:02:56.280 --> 0:02:59.320 come with pole tabs while many still require a can opener. 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:03.840 Crothers said, I wish all cans had easy open tabs 0:03:03.880 --> 0:03:07.600 with beep even busier. Basically, what it gets down to 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.119 is a cost issue. Easy open ends are more expensive 0:03:11.200 --> 0:03:16.280 than sanitary ends, a sanitary end being the industry lingo 0:03:16.440 --> 0:03:19.960 for the solid can lids that require a separate can opener. 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:25.480 You may have never thought twice about how your can of, say, 0:03:25.520 --> 0:03:31.359 tomato soup, was made. But this is precision engineering, just saying. 0:03:31.520 --> 0:03:35.680 DRT has divisions that deal with aerospace and medical manufacturing, 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:39.160 and Crothers says that the metal packaging division there, which 0:03:39.280 --> 0:03:42.920 designs and sells the industrial machines that stamp out easy 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:46.839 open ends, is much more precise than anything else. They do. 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:51.760 The permissible variation in the measurements in their packaging products 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:55.640 is mere microns across, the micron being one thousandth of 0:03:55.640 --> 0:04:00.320 a millimeter. Okay. There are two parts to every hand, 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:04.440 the shell, which is the aluminum body, and the ends, 0:04:04.680 --> 0:04:07.680 which are the top and bottom. For a can with 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:11.280 a plain old sanitary top, both ends are stamped from 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:13.720 a flat sheet of metal and sealed to the shell 0:04:13.760 --> 0:04:17.560 with a process called double seaming. You can picture this 0:04:17.720 --> 0:04:21.520 double seam like two question marks attached by their crooks. 0:04:22.080 --> 0:04:24.680 All right, say you draw a normal question mark on 0:04:24.720 --> 0:04:27.320 a piece of paper. You can think of the straight 0:04:27.440 --> 0:04:30.200 vertical line of the mark as the side of the can. 0:04:31.240 --> 0:04:34.320 Then draw a second question mark, starting the tip of 0:04:34.360 --> 0:04:37.560 the crook inside the crook of the first one, and 0:04:37.720 --> 0:04:40.480 extending the straight line of the mark in a horizontal 0:04:40.520 --> 0:04:43.719 line over top of the first mark. That's your lid. 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:47.000 The two crooks and the way that they curve around 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:51.400 each other form the double seam. Manufacturers crimp them together 0:04:51.760 --> 0:04:55.680 using a bit of glue to seal them. This is 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:59.240 not simple, but cans with a pole tab are more 0:04:59.279 --> 0:05:04.239 expensive because there are more steps to the manufacturing process. First, 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:06.760 the end piece destined to be, the lid has to 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:11.040 be scored with incredible precision. The scoring needs to be 0:05:11.080 --> 0:05:14.039 shallow enough that it remains strong enough to hold the 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:18.080 contents inside, often under pressure or to withstand a fall 0:05:18.080 --> 0:05:21.080 from a store shelf. But the scoring has to be 0:05:21.120 --> 0:05:24.040 deep enough that the lid will pop open easily when 0:05:24.080 --> 0:05:27.919 the tab is pulled. That's why Drt's machines are tuned 0:05:28.000 --> 0:05:31.880 down to the micron. And then there's the poll tab itself, 0:05:32.040 --> 0:05:34.200 a separate piece of aluminum that needs to be stamped 0:05:34.200 --> 0:05:36.520 from a sheet of aluminum and riveted to the end. 0:05:37.520 --> 0:05:40.719 That extra material and tooling also costs money, which is 0:05:40.800 --> 0:05:42.960 passed on to consumers in the price of a poll 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:48.480 tab can. There's no argument that easy open lids are 0:05:48.680 --> 0:05:52.000 well easier to open than containers that require a can opener, 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:55.960 but that convenience comes at a cost. That's why you're 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:59.080 more likely to find poll tabs on name brand items 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:03.039 with a higher priced Cruther's explained a lot of the 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:05.839 decision about whether to use an easy open end has 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:08.279 to do with brand image. If you pick up a 0:06:08.279 --> 0:06:11.279 can of Progresso or Campbell's soup, you're going to find 0:06:11.360 --> 0:06:14.279 easy open ends. If you find a smaller brand or 0:06:14.320 --> 0:06:18.000 a store brand, those will most likely have sanitary ends. 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:23.240 In some markets, particularly in the developing world, cost is 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:28.000 the primary consideration. Even big brands might forego poll tabs 0:06:28.000 --> 0:06:31.320 in those markets to keep the price down. And then 0:06:31.360 --> 0:06:35.359 there are transport considerations. Since easy open lids are scored, 0:06:35.600 --> 0:06:38.440 they are slightly more likely to break open if traveling 0:06:38.480 --> 0:06:41.920 over rough roads. A sanitary end is going to be 0:06:41.960 --> 0:06:50.880 more secure in places with less developed infrastructure. Today's episode 0:06:50.920 --> 0:06:53.480 is based on the article why don't all food cans 0:06:53.520 --> 0:06:56.679 have polltabs? On HowStuffWorks dot Com written by Dave Ruse. 0:06:57.279 --> 0:06:59.600 Brain Stuff is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with 0:06:59.600 --> 0:07:01.479 how stuff works dot Com, and it is produced by 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:04.960 Tyler Klang. Four more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the 0:07:05.000 --> 0:07:08.080 iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 0:07:08.120 --> 0:07:08.839 favorite shows.