Medeco
Medeco is a high security lock manufacturer. Both the factory and administrative offices are in a facility located in Roanoke County, Virginia near Salem. Medeco is a subsidiary of the Swedish Assa Abloy Group .
History
Medeco was established in 1968 as a small tool and die shop called "Mechanical Development Company" in Salem. The company developed a unique locking principle of angled key cuts and elevating and rotating pin tumblers that provided millions of key combinations and a level of security that was unmatched in its time. The locks were highly resistant to most forms of attack. The company expanded rapidly and contracted its original name into Medeco. The company's present 130,000-square-foot (12,000 m2) facility was opened in the mid 1970s.
In 1985, Medeco developed a new design under the trade name Biaxial. It provided high security and key control through the use of the elevating and rotating tumbler design and provided greater master keying capability due to double cuts on the keys and special offset tips on the pins. Additionally, hardened steel inserts were placed to defend against physical attack. A utility patent on both the key and the cylinder is used to provide protection against unauthorized manufacture and duplication of key blanks.
In 1995, Medeco introduced a product called Keymark for installations requiring strong patented key control without the need for additional drill and pick resistant features. The interchangeable core directly retrofits Small Format Interchangeable Cores (SFIC) followed by Medeco's latest high security product, Medeco3 in 2001.
In the early 90's, Medeco started their electronic lock initiative by launching VLS, an electromechanical solution, which was heavily utilized in the payphone industry. Later in 1997, Medeco followed up with an EAC solution in Siteline, a contact/controller based product. With previous success in industrial applications, Medeco redesigned the VLS application to fit the parking industry in the late 90's then launched their NEXGEN product geared toward parking, vending and other industrial applications in 2001. Medeco followed up NEXGEN late in 2006 with Logic using the ASSA ABLOY CLIQ Technology, and Hybrid Keys using Prox and IClass technology in 2007. Medeco will continue their electronic expansion by introducing Hybrid Cylinders using Prox Technology in the second half of 2008.
Medeco currently has over 400 employees.
Design
Medeco's patented lock design requires the angled cuts of a key to elevate and rotate the pins inside the lock in order for a side-bar to drop, allowing the cylinder to turn. The pins are uniquely chisel-tipped which allows them to be rotated by the angled cuts on the key and have a slot along the length of the pin from the sidebar to drop into once the pin has been rotated to its correct orientation.
The off-centre chisel tip also allows 2 different offsets to the pin. This makes the keyway very secure. In theory the number of different key combinations are:
(6 Pins, 6 Heights, 3 Rotational Positions, 2 Offsets)
This equates to around 2,176,782,336 different key combinations, which does not include consideration of different keyways. This flexibility makes Biaxial attractive to large masterkeyed institutions.
Key Control
Medeco uses patented key control systems to prevent unauthorized copies of keys from being generated. However, two of their most successful and widely used utility patents, No. 4,635,455 issued in 1970 and No. 4,393,673 (Biaxial), expired in 1986 and 2004 respectively. Medeco has counter-acted by obtaining a new utility patent on their newest product named Medeco-Medeco3, the patent is set to expire in 2021.