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An Overview of the Most Common Types of Locks

There is a certain something you are surrounded by everywhere that you go and you barely notice them at most times. That is the locks that protect you at home, work, and in your car. Often you take them for granted until you need them and they don’t work for you. These handy security devices have been around since ancient times because of how well they work. In this article, we will go over several different types of the most popular locking devices.

Mechanical Locking Devices

These are the most common locks you will find anyplace you go in the world. They have been around for many centuries now. All it takes is a key to open them. That key will activate a knob, latch or cylinder inside them that moves to lock or unlock the door. They are convenient in most cases because they can be mastered so that several locks can be opened just by carrying a single key on you. 
This type of lock has also gotten more sophisticated over the years too. There are now more secure varieties of them. Two that come to mind are advanced sidewinder keys for automobiles and bump-proof home door locks. These locks continue to adapt and get more secure with time.

Here is another extremely popular type of door lock. They can be used as a stand-alone locking device but many of these locks also offer increased security on a door with a keyed lock. They are the most popular lock in the marketplace as far as providing secondary security goes.

These locks are simple in operation just like keyed locks. They also contain a cylinder inside them. When the switch on the lock is manually turned it trips the cylinder to work and a latching mechanism is then thrust into place. These locks are popular because they are very hard for thieves to defeat or smash open.

Electronic Locking Devices

These days’ keyless locking devices are becoming all the rage. That’s because of the convenience they offer to those that use them. They also have proven to be much more difficult for thieves to beat than conventional mechanical locks are. 

Here are some of the main types of keyless locks:

You don’t see these too often in homes but they are very popular with businesses. An employee with access rights to a building or area simply swipes their card to gain entry. These are great because they are easy to program so someone is granted access to an area and can be deactivated easily when those access privileges are lost too.

One neat thing about swipe cards is they help track employee movements too. So, if a theft occurs in a secure area the company will know which employees with access to that area were in it at the time of the theft. They can also be used to see how many hours an employee spends in a certain area of the business.

These are very similar to swipe cards in nature. The biggest difference between the two is that with these locks the user has to input a specific code they were given. These codes too are easy to program and deprogram by the company. The codes may or may not be specific to an individual. It depends on the level of sophistication that the company desires these types of locks to have.

Pushbutton locks are the least reliable and one of the most common keyless entry locks you will find. They are usually simple knob-based pushbutton locks that are not very sophisticated in nature. Push button locking devices are also fairly inexpensive to install or retrofit.

Most people own these types of locking devices and do not even realize it. That’s because they are those devices you hold in your hand to lock and unlock your car doors and activate or deactivate your car alarm. These locking devices actually send a transmission to your vehicle to work. If the signals match then the called for locking/unlocking action is then initiated.

Here are some other locks that are rapidly gaining in popularity. That’s because they use bodily features for identification purposes. Since no two people have the exact same body composition it makes these lock types incredible secure ones. 

Here are some examples of popular biometric locks:

Fingerprints have now been used for decades for identification purposes. That’s because they are unique to every individual. That makes them perfect for use on a biometric type locking device. These devices simply scan your index finger in most cases and then that scan has to match a person’s fingerprint that is in that particular lock database.

These are not as popular yet as fingerprint scans but they are getting there. The technology for these types of locks is rapidly advancing and becoming more practical. Retina scans work because like fingerprints, no two people have the same retina configuration. Once again, your retina is scanned and has to match a retina pattern in that locks database in order for it to open.

Call a Locksmith If You Are Having Trouble with Any of Your Locks

One of the best things about locks is that a competent locksmith service can usually handle all of your lock needs. That includes any commercial, auto, and home locksmith services that you need to be done.