ARF-GEF wrote:
Secondly Medecos got me confused...
Not all medecos are axially rotating right?
Which ones are rotating and which ones aren't'?
What's the difference between m3 and biaxial?
I know medeco bilevel is just a regular pin tumbler. Keymark is also a regular pin tumbler only it always has those contorted keyways right?
What's with medeco Air?
When people talk of medecos they usually mean the axially rotating ones, so I thought for a long time they only make those. I'm still confused about what they make and their homepage is not really helpful..
quick history of medeco, some dates are rough dates, forgiveness asked since I'm writing this from memory
1968-1969 Medeco company is started with Air, Military/Dept of Defense and Sky keyways. They are numbered 00, 02, and 04, and are also Called Level 1 and Level 2 for the Air and Sky. The pins lift and twist in order for the lock to open. Medeco Original would include Air, Military/DoD, and Sky keyways.
1972- a patent is filed for an medeco pick which uses piano wire to move the pins to the correct angles. There was also an electonic pick that raked the pins to the correct angles, I dont know if Lock Technologies made it or a couple guys from New York, you'll have to google that story. Medeco responds by milling the gates in their key pins instead of broaching them. This makes it impossible to use a Medecoder style tool, but the knowledge is lost to time, and by the 1980's Medeco returns to using broached pins with fully open key pin gates.
1985 - Medeco BiAxial comes out to renew the patent and add more master keying differs for very large systems. At first I thought bi-axial meant axial rotation, but it does not, the Original Medeco pins rotated as well. Biaxial refers to the fact that each key cut can have a BeFORE center cut or an AFTer center cut (they also have Left Center and Right for each of these. Imagine that, 2 key cuts in one position! many more keying possibilities suddenly become available.
Somewhere during this time Medeco makes cam locks and T-handle vending locks. They are a driver-less system with a spring pushing directly against the key pin. the key pins have to lift up AND twist axially in order for the sidebar pins to be able to insert into the holes drilled into the pins.
1990 - Medeco responds to John Falle's decoder tool and includes ringed bottom pins to stop a wire tool from reading stack heights.
1993 - Medeco ARX system comes out for the US DoD and other high security locations. It is more of a way of pinning cylinders up in order to confuse an attacker than an improvement in technology. ARX stood for Attack Resistance eXtended. It used steel anti drill pin inserts, serrated pins, ringed pins, blind faced cylinders with no Medeco logo, and a way of randomly pinning these features in cylinders so if an attacker took apart one lock they could not figure out the security features in the other locks around the facility.
2000's Medeco M3 comes out in order to extend the patent. Pins still lift and rotate, it's pretty much a Biaxial, but now the side of the keyblade also has a notch and it pushes a slider element forward in order to unlock the sidebar and allow it to fall into the gates on the key pins.
BiLevel comes out as a cheaper alternative for low-security interior doors and pins only need to lift but not rotate, and the BiLevel also uses the slider to unlock a modified sidebar, which does not have fingers on it (from what I remember) The key pins are normal key pins like a Schlage or Kwikset. It also costs less because there is no drill protection.
MVP line comes out for electronic cam lock switches for use in machines like CoinStar. Provides good pick resistance and key copy protection, but has lower price because it does not include drill protection.
Medeco M3 cam locks and t-handle cylinders are also available.
Keymark is something I believe Medeco came out with but they have dropped it now, and Yale Keymark is being marketed by ASSA Abloy the parent company of both Yale and Medeco. Keymark has spool pins, difficult keyway, and only up and down, no rotation. It is not unusual for a company like ASSA Abloy to share technologies from one child company to another.
I believe this to be pretty accurate, some exact dates may be off, so I welcome any corrections.
Thanks
Squelchtone