Loran was the brand name of a blank compact audio cassette marketed throughout the 1970s and 1980s and manufactured by Loran Cassettes & Audio Products, Inc, a division of Loranger Manufacturing Corporation.

Unlike most other brands of cassettes at the time, which were made of more conventional formulations of plastic, Loran cassettes were exceptional in that the cassette's housing was made of Lexan

Lexan

Lexan is a registered trademark for SABIC Innovative Plastics' brand of polycarbonate resin thermoplastic. Polycarbonate polymer is produced by reacting bisphenol A with carbonyl dichloride, also known as phosgene. Lexan is the brand name for polycarbonate sheet and resin in a wide range of grades...

 thermoplastic

Thermoplastic

Thermoplastic, also known as a thermosoftening plastic, is a polymer that turns to a liquid when heated and freezes to a very glassy state when cooled sufficiently...

, which has much more resistance to extreme heat. Lexan was chosen by Loran to provide a blank cassette that was more suited for use in the fluctuating temperatures of automotive environments, especially a car's interior during hot summer days, which could easily warp a conventional cassette's housing.

Also, the tabs covering the write-protect notches of Loran cassettes were built-in plastic mechanisms that would open or close the notch by turning the mechanism with a small flat-blade screwdriver

Screwdriver

A screwdriver is a tool for driving screws and often rotating other machine elements with the mating drive system. The screwdriver is made up of a head or tip, which engages with a screw, a mechanism to apply torque by rotating the tip, and some way to position and support the screwdriver...

or a fingernail, as opposed to the write-protect tabs of other cassettes which were broken out instead, as the hardness of the Lexan would've made this very difficult for the average user to accomplish.