Medeco facts for kids
Medeco is a company that makes special, high-security locks. It is located in Roanoke County, Virginia, in the United States. Medeco is part of a bigger company called the Assa Abloy Group, which is from Sweden.
The Story of Medeco Locks
Medeco began as a small workshop in the mid-1950s. It was called the Mechanical Development Company. Paul A. Powell, Roy C. Spain, and Roy N. Oliver started it in the Cave Spring area of Roanoke County. Roy Oliver was the CEO of Medeco for many years.
In the 1960s, Mr. Spain created a new type of lock. This lock had special pins that could turn and lift up. The key for this lock also had unique angled cuts. He sent his design to the U.S. Patent Office. To show how strong his lock was, he offered $50,000 to anyone who could pick it. Only one detective from New York City managed to open it once, but he could not do it again.
This new lock design was very hard to open using common methods at the time. Because of this clever invention, the Medeco company was officially started in 1968. The name "Medeco" comes from parts of "Mechanical Development Company."
In 1998, a large lock company from Sweden, the Assa Abloy Group, bought Medeco. Today, Medeco still makes locks in Roanoke County and has over 250 employees.
How Medeco Locks Work
Medeco locks are special because their pins have a "chisel tip." This means the pins are shaped in a unique way. Only keys with matching angled cuts can turn these pins. This makes it very hard to copy the keys or pick the lock.
When the correct key is used, it turns each pin to the right position. A special part inside the lock, called a sidebar, can then drop into place. This allows the lock to open. Because of these clever features, a Medeco lock with six pins can have over two million different key combinations!
Discovering Lock Weaknesses
Even very secure locks can sometimes have weaknesses. In 2007, a group of researchers showed how they could open Medeco locks. They used computers and special tools to find a way. Medeco officials said they would check these claims. They also announced a new version of their lock. After this research, Medeco stopped saying their locks were completely safe from all attacks.
The next year, in 2008, more ways to open Medeco locks were shown by Marc Tobias and Tobias Bluzmanis. They even released a book about their findings. They showed how some keys could be copied without permission. They also showed another way to open the locks. These discoveries helped Medeco improve their lock designs even more.
