Castle theory

Despite the fact that even the most modern security systems cannot give one hundred percent guarantee of the safety of your home, this is not a reason to panic and barricade the doors. A quality castle is quite capable of giving you peace and confidence. The Italian company CISA, a leading manufacturer of door locks, is developing models that will create too many problems for the burglar by preventing him from possible actions..

The design of each lock includes a secret and executive parts. Secret part is the mechanism that recognizes the key. AND executive Is a locking mechanism, arranged in all locks according to the same principle and consisting of crossbars (bolts), latches and strips.
Depending on the method of installation of the executive part, the locks are divided into mortise and overhead. Mortise locks are more reliable than overhead locks, however, the installation process of such a lock is much more complicated, especially when it comes to steel doors. It should be noted that replacing a lock in a steel door, for example, due to the loss of a key, is a very laborious process. Therefore, it is necessary to install such a door immediately with a reliable lock, which does not have to be changed later. The Cisa company offers its own version: a transcoding lock. Now, when an alarming situation arises, you do not have to spend a lot of time and money installing a new lock. A recoding lock allows the owner to change the key without changing the lock itself. In literally two minutes, you can independently change the secret combination by setting the lock to a new key, and none of the old keys will open the door again. What is important: this operation can only be performed by the owner of the apartment with the door open and at least one of the keys of the old set. In this case, the transcoding operation can be performed an unlimited number of times..

Now let’s take a closer look at the secret part of the castle, which is precisely responsible for ensuring that no one but you can open your door. Mechanical locks, depending on the design of the code part, are subdivided into cylinder and lever locks. Let’s try to briefly describe them.

Cylinder locks, traditionally known as English. At the dawn of their appearance, cylinder locks were quite simple and resisted breaking with a simple master key for no more than a couple of minutes. Today the secret mechanism in them is a complex set of movable pins housed in a cylinder. The more pins, the higher the secrecy of the lock – to open the door, the key must line them up in a certain order. And they can be located both in one or two rows, and on three or four sides. The convenience of using a cylinder lock is that the cylinders themselves have standard sizes, and the degree of secrecy of the lock can be increased by replacing one cylinder with another, more complex one. As a rule, cylinder locks have high secrecy, but low security properties, that is, they are poorly resistant to brute force burglary. Therefore, the choice of a cylinder lock should be approached with special scrupulousness.. CISA has been producing anti-drill cylinders with carbide inserts for a long time, and in 2006 CISA patented cylinders, protected both from pulling out and from opening with the help of master keys. A core of high strength and elasticity (6 rigid and one flexible plates) is mounted in the lower part of such a cylinder. The core is clearly visible from the outside of the door: having noticed it, a burglar may well change his mind about opening your door..

Lever locks have a more ancient history: their ancestors guarded the dwellings of the ancient Persians more than three thousand years ago. The principle of operation is based on the interaction of levers – special plates. Once in the lock, the key puts the levers in certain positions, sliding the locking bolts, and the door opens. The more levers and the more precisely they are made, the higher the degree of secrecy of the castle. It is not difficult to recognize a lever lock – these are heavy massive locks with large keys. Due to its massiveness, such a lock is much better than a cylinder lock, withstands brute force (knocking out, or, for example, opening with a crowbar). But unfortunately, they are unable to achieve the same degree of secrecy. As a rule, lever keys have a constant fixed distance between the teeth, which makes it easier to intelligently open the lock or make a copy of the key. In the patented CISA lever system, this distance changes, which increases the number of possible key combinations from several thousand to more than two hundred million – of course, deciphering the mechanism of such a lock is much more difficult..

Combined locks were born, thanks to the efforts of manufacturers to combine all the advantages of the above models in one case. As a result, two mechanisms, interacting in one lock, increase the degree of burglary resistance. Moreover, they can work both independently of each other and dependently. For example, mechanical action on the larva of one lock will automatically block the possibility of manipulation with the second.
In addition to the invention of all kinds of lock combinations, it is important to protect each of the presented types from the encroachments of burglars, strengthening the weak points of the structure. CISA has developed a range of accessories that will not leave a burglar a single chance to get to the lock. So, to protect the cylinder from drilling, CISA offers special armor plates made of heavy-duty steel. To improve the performance of a lever lock, CISA recommends the use of a steel mounting plate. It is important that the hole for the key in the mounting plate is by no means larger than the hole in the lock, which makes it possible to protect it from being opened by a roll (in other words, from folding). One of the latest CISA know-how is the lever cylinder. An additional attachment device that allows you to combine the strengths of both lever and cylinder locks, protecting the lock from both burglary and intelligent opening.

In conclusion, we note that only the protection that is used in the complex will be truly reliable: a strong door – a reliable lock, protected from a burglar.