The aluminum storefront door represents 95% of business’ entrance doors. It is my goal to give you a basic understanding of the parts associated with the doors, along with the terminology used to describe them.
While I’m sure you know that you must crawl before you can walk, once you learn everything in this guide, you will be able to skip crawling and move up to a brisk walk. We will be able to accomplish this quickly because these storefront doors represent a large percentage of what business owners have installed.
Mortise cylinders are the most common part we will be dealing with in this article. A standard mortise cylinder refers to the type of keyway in the cylinder.
The keyway is where you insert the key. A standard keyway can be rekeyed with a standard pinning kit. Examples of a standard key are the SC1, KW1, Y1, RU46, just to name a few. The best way to identify a type of keyway is to observe the stamp on the current key. Identifying the keyway is important when calling to dispatch a tech and it may be beneficial to take a picture of the front and back of the key to provide to the tech as reference. This can ensure the tech has enough of the correct blanks on their truck before dispatching.
The above two cylinders are the most common for store front doors. A standard mortise cylinder is a good fit for business owners who have little or no employee turnover. In order to rekey this lock, a tech would need to be dispatched to roll a truck out. To rekey this lock would cost at least $125-135 minimum.
High Security cylinder means the cylinder is not easily lock-picked by a potential criminal. These cylinders also have varying types of key restrictions which make it very difficult to rekey or make duplicates. A Restricted keyway means the manufacturer does not sell the blanks to just anyone. Currently, the Medeco™ I/C core is a go to for a high security option. Oftentimes, if I business changes lock companies, they will need to replace existing high security cylinders and convert to a new piece of equipment.
Interchangeable or I/c Cores are the best system for business owners with multiple locations, large facilities, or high employee turnover. They allow lock companies to ship out cores to the business owners so they can change the locks themselves. The best description of I/C Cores would be that the device has a similar appearance to a figure 8. I/C cores come in 6- and 7-pin cores, with housings available in 6- or 7-pin. While a 6-pin core will fit in a 7-pin housing, a 7-pin core will not fit in a 6-pin housing. To determine if a core is 6- or 7-pin, business owners can count the holes at the top or bottom of the core. If a control or core key for this system is lost or unavailable, the existing core will need to be drilled out or the housing will need to be replaced. It is typically more cost effective to replace the mortise housing instead of paying for the labor to drill out the device. Below are some common examples of these devices.
The above Arrow Flex™ is a 6-pin core that offers key restriction. Most business owners will be unable to duplicate keys without great effort.
The above Medeco™ is a premier high security I/C Core. There are varying levels of national key exclusivity for this system. What does this mean for business owners? Let’s say 5 keys were cut for a business and issued to Joe, Doc Antle, John, Carole, and Jeff. One day Carole leaves on bad/good terms. If she turns her key in there is no way that she or anyone else was able to have a duplicate made. The key system is intact and there is no need to rekey.
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This article has been graciously provided by guest author Mike Foster. Mike Foster is a licensed security professional with 20 years of experience in the door security arena, having implemented over 15,000 IC Cores and hundreds of key management systems. Mike is currently a leading security solutions project manager for Rolland Solutions. Mike currently lives in Dallas with his wife and their pug named Princeton.