The Most Commonly Found Lock and Key Types
If you took a second out now to stop and look, you would probably be able to find some type of lock not too far from you. You probably also have a set of keys in your pocket or someplace close to you also. Although most people take their keys and locks for granted, we certainly would find life a lot less secure without them. In lieu of that fact, it might be a good idea to take a look at the most commonly found locks and key types. That’s exactly what will be done in this article.
Common Mechanical Locks
It would take about 20 pages to list all of the different types of keyed locking devices that are made. They are by far the most common lock type found in the entire world. All it takes is a matching key to open them. These keys are also very easy to duplicate so the owner can have spare keys. Although other types of keyless and electronic locks are starting to get popular, don’t expect keyed locks to go away completely anytime soon.
Deadbolt locks can be either opened with keys or from knobs on the inside of them. They have proven to be much harder to defeat by lock picking and prying open than other types of keyed locks are. They are often used as secondary locks for added security on many homes and businesses.
Popular Keyless Entry Locks
You are starting to see keyless locks pop up more all over the place these days. They are now commonly found in the entranceway doors of homes and in secure areas of businesses. The trend has even started to take hold in the auto industry. They offer many more conveniences than traditional keyed locks do.
- Radio Signal/Magnetically Triggered Locks
More keyless locks that are triggered by radio signals or magnetically activated are started to be seen also. You may have used one to get in the front door of a business or for the main entrance of your condo. Locks that receive transponder signals are also examples of these types of locks.
These types of keyless locks have been around for a while now. They unlock by pushing the proper button combination on them. They can be found on such places as fence gates, supply area doors, shed doors, and home entranceways.
Biometric Locks
In an effort to take lock security to an even higher level. Lock manufacturers have moved toward making more biometric type locking devices. Among them are fingerprint scanning devices. These locks offer better security because no two people have the exact same fingerprint pattern. Once a person fingerprint pattern has been programmed into that locks system it becomes nearly impossible to defeat that lock without destroying it.
Along the same lines as fingerprint scanners are retina scanning devices. Once again, no two people have the exact same retina pattern. That makes these types of biometric locks very hard to defeat too without going to some extreme means to do it.
For years thieves have been gaining access to less complicated keyed locks by a means called ‘bumping’ them. A thief would insert a key blank into a keyhole and then hit that lock hard with a hammer and that force would open it. These locks were specifically designed to prevent thieves from gaining home entry by ‘bumping’ locks.
Keyed car locks also proved very easy to defeat for experienced auto thieves and something needed to be done to prevent this. Hence sidewinder keys (sometimes called laser cut keys) and sidewinder locking devices were born. Sidewinder locks use special smooth sided keys where the lock-triggering pattern is actually laser cut into the side of the key. This makes these keys very tough to duplicate.
The Most Commonly Used Key Types
Just like there are hundreds of different types of keyed locks, there are also hundreds of different types of keys that open them. There is nothing fancy about traditional types of keys. They simply have to be cut to match the pattern of their respective lock types.
These high-security automobile keys are starting to dominate the vehicle key marketplace. With just a push of a button, a user can lock/unlock their car door and set or disarm their car alarm. Many of them even include a panic button and trunk unlocking features.
With the huge shift towards keyless locking devices, magnet sensor keys will play a big role in this. They activate a corresponding keyless locking device simply by swiping the key through a magnetic card reader or by passing the key close enough to a lock to trigger its opening device.
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