SmartLOC Pro-Line: A New Program For Locksmiths

Turnover is a problem every company faces. To maintain building security, locks need to be routinely changed as employees or tenants depart.
Rod Herdman devised a solution for this problem. In 2003 he invented SmartLOC Rekeyable Cylinders. SmartLOC offers the user the ability to quickly change the combination of a lock without the need of special tools. The user can change the combination of their cylinder up to 15 times and then continue progressively again through the same key changes. The idea of SmartLOC is to have the ability to rekey locks in seconds.

The idea of rekeyable cylinders is not new. Other companies have marketed user changeable cylinders for more than 20 years. However, due to the design limitations, these products have not found a large acceptance within the industrial and commercial hardware user groups.

Most larger users have a need for masterkeying and previous products either did not have that capability or they were extremely limited. In addition, commercial and industrial users require different cylinder designs to retrofit to their commercial hardware. SmartLOC cylinders are made of solid machined brass with stainless steel inserts and are manufactured entirely in the United States.

SmartLOC cylinders entirely eliminate lock and core changes—security and operating convenience are maximized by simply changing keys in seconds at the push of a button.

SmartLOC cylinders are compatible with virtually all major brands of commercial grade locksets, and systems can be master- and grand-master keyed. In case of a lost master key, SmartLOC cylinders can be quickly changed to a new master key combination without affecting individual change keys.

SmartLOC Technology’s primary business strategy is to market its product and services to the more lucrative non-technical mainstream market. It will accomplish this by selling changeable security products through qualified wholesale hardware distributors.

HOW IT OPERATES
SmartLOC consists of a system for either parking or utilizing different ball bearing arrangements to form a variety of key combinations. Since no parts are eliminated during each combination change, previous combinations can be reused.

Masterkeying is available because bottom pins and ball bearings provide two shearlines in the same fashion as master chips in a traditional lock cylinder. The 7-pin design provides maximum security and a greater amount of individual key combinations.

SmartLOC uses ball bearings as master chips. A ball bearing can be installed in each tumbler space position. A ball bearing holding area is located at a 90-degree angle from the top of the plug. Unused ball bearings are held in a position to ‘top off’ the cylinder core at the shearline.

Depending on the key cuts, some ball bearings become part of the key combination while the remainder of the ball bearings are ‘parked’ in the holding area. Individual key change combinations are dictated by the lengths used for the bottom pins.

CHANGE KEYS IN FOUR EASY STEPS
Step 1. Insert currently used key and turn cylinder one-quarter turn clockwise.
Step 2. Insert reset tool into a slot in the lock plug, press inward and remove the reset tool.
Step 3. Turn the current key back to the vertical position and remove the key.
Step 4. Insert the next key and turn clockwise on-quarter turn. Push the button on the plug to set new combination.
The company has received several patents, both issued and pending, covering the SmartLOC technology.