Schlage (pronounced ) is an American
lock
Lock(s) may refer to:
Common meanings
*Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance
*Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal
Arts and entertainment
* ''Lock ...
manufacturer founded in 1920 by
Walter Schlage
Walter Reinhold Schlage (1882–1946) was a German-born American engineer and inventor. Known as the ''Lock Wizard of Thuringia'', he is best known for the bored cylindrical lock and the lock company that bears his name, Schlage Lock Co.
Early t ...
. Schlage was headquartered in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
from its inception until it relocated to
Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1997. Schlage also produces high-security key and cylinder lines Primus, Everest, and Everest Primus XP. Schlage is one of the most popular brands of consumer and commercial locks in the
United States
The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
.
History
![Caltrain tunnel, San Francisco (7147248141)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Caltrain_tunnel%2C_San_Francisco_%287147248141%29.jpg)
The Schlage Manufacturing Company was founded by inventor Walter Schlage (d. 1946) in 1920 with the help of three businessmen who each contributed $10 to become equal partners.
Walter Schlage had already secured several patents dating back to 1909, when he patented a doorknob that would also complete an electrical circuit so that, for instance, the lights would turn on when the door was opened. However, Schlage's key invention was the
bored cylindrical lock, which evolved through several iterations, including a 1917 filing for a mortise mechanism which locked when the knob was tilted; two filings in 1920 (in April for a lock requiring one hole and a surface rabbet rather than a complex mortise pocket and October for a mortise with the lock mechanism activated by a button coaxial to the knob). This series would ultimately culminate in , filed in 1923, which was sold commercially as the Schlage "A" series lock.
Schlage would later make a 1925 filing for a push button cylindrical lock fusing the two 1920 patents with the 1923 patent.
Schlage's first shop was at 229 Minna Street,
and he moved to 461 Bush Street, where many of his key patents were developed.
The first factory (in 1923) was at 49 Shotwell Street.
Because the bored cylindrical lock had a decided ease of installation advantage over the contemporary
mortise lock
A mortise lock (also spelled mortice lock in British English) is a lock that requires a pocket—the mortise—to be cut into the edge of the door or piece of furniture into which the lock is to be fitted. In most parts of the world, mortise loc ...
, demand for the Schlage-designed lock rose and the company would purchase land in
Visitacion Valley
Visitacion Valley (; Spanish: ''Valle de la Visitación''), colloquially referred to as Viz Valley, is a neighborhood located in the southeastern quadrant of San Francisco, California.
Visitacion Valley is roughly defined by McLaren Park and Gle ...
in 1925, which would eventually become the company's Bayshore factory and administration complex.
Eight buildings were eventually erected at the Bayshore complex,
the first two of which (the Old Office and Plant 1) were dedicated in a ceremony on June 25, 1926 attended by dignitaries including Mayor
James "Sunny Jim" Rolph.
Charles Kendrick took over as Chief Executive after making a sizable investment in the company, and served as Chief through his retirement in 1969.
During World War II, Schlage Lock manufactured shell casings and bomb rail fuses.
After the war, the company supplied lock hardware to the
Pan Am Building
The MetLife Building (also 200 Park Avenue and formerly the Pan Am Building) is a skyscraper at Park Avenue and 45th Street (Manhattan), 45th Street, north of Grand Central Terminal, in the Midtown Manhattan neighborhood of New York City. Desi ...
(1964) and the
Bank of America Headquarters (1969) skyscrapers.
The company was also busy post-war acquiring smaller hardware manufacturers, including the California Lock Company, Peabody Company, LCN Closers, the Von Duprin Factory, and the General Lock Company (Pontiac, Michigan).
In 1974, the year the company was acquired by
Ingersoll Rand
Ingersoll Rand is an American multinational company that provides flow creation and industrial products. The company was formed in February 2020 through the spinoff of the industrial segment of Ingersoll-Randplc (now known as Trane Technologies) ...
, Schlage employed 1,600 and was the largest manufacturer in San Francisco.
Schlage had just completed a move from the Old Office building to a three-story New Office located nearby, at the corner of Bayshore and Leland.
Schlage remained an Ingersoll Rand
subsidiary for nearly 40 years, until Schlage and other security hardware companies were
spun off as part of
Allegion
Allegion plc is an American Irish-domiciled provider of security products for homes and businesses.
Though it comprises thirty-one global brands, including CISA, Interflex, LCN, Schlage and Von Duprin, the company operates through two main secti ...
, formed in December 2013.
After 73 years of operation, the Schlage Lock Co. Bayshore factory was closed in 1999.
To settle an environmental lawsuit, the Bayshore factory site was transferred to Universal Paragon Corporation (UPC) from Ingersoll Rand in 2008.
UPC owned an adjacent parcel on which it had intended to develop housing, but the groundwater had been contaminated by the Schlage Lock factory, and UPC filed suit seeking to make Ingersoll Rand responsible for cleanup.
In May 2009, demolition began on the Schlage Bayshore site; though the original 1926 Spanish Colonial "Old Office", designed by local architect William Peyton Day will remain, the rest of the site is planned to become
affordable, green housing.
Keyway types
Like many lock manufacturers, Schlage uses
milled complex
keyway shapes to mechanically prevent some non-
OEM
An original equipment manufacturer (OEM) is generally perceived as a company that produces non-aftermarket parts and equipment that may be marketed by another manufacturer. It is a common industry term recognized and used by many professional or ...
keys from entering or operating a lock. New keyway designs may be protected for a limited time by
patent
A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...
protection, which expires after a set number of years.
There is no law against duplicating the reverse, numbered or quad-key blanks, which are not patented and are not protected against third-party manufacturing.
As of 2008, Primus keys are no longer protected by patents; therefore, anyone is free to duplicate them. The Everest patents expired in 2014.
Primus/Primus XP
In addition to six cuts for standard locking mechanism, there are five side finger pins to operate the secondary sidebar lock. Primus keys will operate non-Primus locks within the same system. Primus blanks and keyways are slightly thinner to prevent the entry of non-Primus keys; however, even if a standard key is altered to allow entry, it will not operate Primus locks. This design was protected until 2007 under . The current generation Primus, called the Primus XP, is a slight modification to the original design and is protected until 2024 under . Schlage did not invent, nor do they hold the patents on, Primus or Primus XP. The design is licensed to Schlage by Bo Widen of
Torshälla
Torshälla () is a locality situated in Eskilstuna Municipality, Södermanland County, Sweden with 7,612 inhabitants in 2010. It is mainly known for steel manufacturing, centered on the Nyby Bruk steel mill, and also for its historic old town cen ...
,
Sweden, the inventor and patent holder.
Everest
This design features a patented under groove in the keyway design, and was legally protected against cloning by utility patents until 2014. Relevant patents are: (December 2, 2016) and . Just like the classic series, Everest Primus keys can operate Everest non-Primus locks, but not the other way around. Everest Primus XP is an extension to Primus Everest and the XP design is protected until 2024 under . Schlage also offers an Everest 29 SL Cylinder, the only seven pin lock they make, along with their Everest 29 Family/Primus (6 pins). Schlage did not invent, nor do they hold the patents on, the Everest keys, which were designed and patented by Bo Widen and licensed to Schlage.
Obverse
There are seven different keyways: C, CE, E, EF, F, FG, and G. There is also a special P keyway designed to accept any of the seven sectional keys and a special L key blank (35-101 L) designed to be accepted into all seven keyways. OEM L section blanks are made of stainless steel.
The older type, the common residential
keyway, is known as 35-100C, which is a five-pin, C section.
Reverse (restricted)
This variation was a horizontal
mirror image of obverse keyways, no longer offered in new key system, and not available with a Primus option.
Numbered or Paracentric (restricted)
This is a large family of keyways expressed as four numbers. Except for zeros, digits in the keyway designation cannot repeat; i.e. 3578, 1358 and 1200 are valid, but 1244 and 3300 are not. Primus cannot be implemented on this series. The digit 9 is not used. Each digit represents the presence of a notch in the keyway and a corresponding protrusion along the blade of the key. The odd digits 1, 3, 5, and 7 extend along the left side of the keyway as observed from the lock face from bottom to top. The even digits are likewise, on the right side. Generally, keyways are identified by four non-zero digits in ascending order. In a large
master key system, keys with fewer than four protrusions can be used to enter more than one keyway. For example, key blank 1460 will fit lock cylinder 1246, 1346, 1467, etc.
Quad (restricted)
Expressed in four characters, such as WSTP, VTQP, etc. This is a very large family, available in Primus.
Key copying
At the 2013
DEF CON conference,
MIT
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the m ...
students David Lawrence and Eric Van Albert released a piece of code that allows anyone to create a 3D-printable software model of any Primus key. With just a
flatbed scanner
An image scanner—often abbreviated to just scanner—is a device that optically scans images, printed text, handwriting or an object and converts it to a digital image. Commonly used in offices are variations of the desktop ''flatbed scanner'' w ...
and their software tool, they were able to produce precise models that they uploaded to the 3D-printing services
Shapeways
Shapeways, Inc. is a global, 3D printing marketplace and service, publicly traded company. Users design and upload 3D printable files, and Shapeways prints the objects for them or others. Users can have objects printed in over 55 materials and f ...
and , who mailed them working copies of the keys in materials ranging from
nylon
Nylon is a generic designation for a family of synthetic polymers composed of polyamides ( repeating units linked by amide links).The polyamides may be aliphatic or semi-aromatic.
Nylon is a silk-like thermoplastic, generally made from pe ...
to
titanium
Titanium is a chemical element with the Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resista ...
.
Nexia Home Intelligence
Nexia Home Intelligence is a
home automation system that was launched by Schlage and
Ingersoll Rand
Ingersoll Rand is an American multinational company that provides flow creation and industrial products. The company was formed in February 2020 through the spinoff of the industrial segment of Ingersoll-Randplc (now known as Trane Technologies) ...
that allows users to remotely control and monitor home automation devices. A wireless network is created within the home and connects the wireless door lock to the internet. Using a smart-phone or a web-enabled computer, users can monitor and send commands to the Schlage Bridge, which communicates with
Z-Wave
Z-Wave is a wireless communications protocol used primarily for residential and commercial building automation. It is a mesh network using low-energy radio waves to communicate from device to device, allowing for wireless control of smart home de ...
enabled wireless locks, thermostats, lights, cameras, and other components within the home.
There is a monthly fee associated with the Nexia Home Intelligence service.
Nexia Home Intelligence is no longer maintained by Schlage. It remained with Ingersoll Rand during the IR-Allegion spin-off process. Ingersoll Rand solely maintains the Nexia platform.
One of its key features is "depth control" which senses if someone else is using your assigned PIN: it then enhances its security by proceeding to lock out that same PIN number. All Schlage products that were designed for the Nexia platform work with major smart home platforms. All security features such as "depth control" work under certain conditions such as "HomeKit".
References
External links
* {{official website, http://www.schlage.com/
Schlage Lock Company: Detailed Company History on Answers.comNexia Home Intelligence: Official Site
Lock manufacturers
Manufacturing companies based in San Francisco
American companies established in 1920
Manufacturing companies established in 1920
1920 establishments in California