Supermarket products, especially canned goods, tend to be easy targets for petty theft globally. This type of theft represents huge losses for brands and retail companies.

We were asked to design a low-cost, one-piece mechanism that could address this problem.

The padlock consists of a single piece of biodegradable plastic with an accelerated decomposition additive. A hinged plastic lock is equipped with a proximity sensor to track the piece within the store. The shape of the piece helps the user to place the fingers on both sides to bend and pull the tab of the can in order to open the products.

The lock fits most commercially available can tabs on a wide range of products. Piece size does not affect stackability or any other packaging process.