Pin-Tumbler Lock Design Process

LOCKS

In earlier times simple locks have been used to fasten doors against thieves . More sophisticated locks were developed in the 20th century, including timer locks used in bank vaults, push button locks, and electronic locks that operate with a credit card like key. The manufacturing process that follows is for a standard pin-tumbler lock. This is the kind of lock that may be found on any front door or file cabinet drawer.

Raw Materials

Standard five-tumbler key locks are made of various strong metals. The internal mechanisms of locks are generally made of brass or die-cast zinc. The cam is made of steel or stainless steel . The outer casing of a lock may be made of brass, chrome, steel, nickel or any other durable metal or alloy.

The Manufacturing

Process

Design The process starts with the manufacturer assessing the customer's needs. The lock manufacturer comes up with the best design for the customer's needs. In some cases, a customer may have purchased locks in the past from one company, and now wants more identical locks from a different manufacturer, who promises to make them more economically. Now the lock manufacturer examines the customer's original locks and goes through what is known as a reverse engineering process. The manufacturer's design team figures out from the existing lock how to make their

Each key has five bumps on it which are cut to different levels. These levels are represented by numbers. A five-tumbler key lock with two levels in the key yields two to the fifth power, or 32, different possible combinations of ridges in the key. The five ridges are listed by the height of each level, yielding what is called the combination for the key. A key with the combination 23452 is cut with the first ridge at level two, the second at three, the next at four, and so on. The lock manufacturer chooses the combinations from a random list and cuts each key