Break-in Resistant Lock Cylinder with Segmented Pin Encoding
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional break-in resistant lock cylinders are vulnerable to forcing and lock-picking attacks, and increasing the number of pins is not feasible due to their small size, necessitating a more secure and cost-effective alternative.
Innovation Solution
A break-in resistant lock cylinder design featuring a stator and rotor with slideable pins, where the pins have an ogive with a contoured cavity and pegs with protruding appendages, and a channel with varying diameters and elastic means, allowing for complex encoding and secure alignment only with a specific key profile, preventing unauthorized access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If the number of pins is increased to improve security against forcing, then security level improves, but device complexity and manufacturing difficulty increase due to small lock dimensions
Solution Approach 1:
The pin is segmented into multiple functional components: an ogive with a contoured cavity, a peg with two protruding appendages of different diameters, and a central rim. This segmentation allows each component to perform a specific security function while maintaining a compact overall structure, resolving the contradiction between security and complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The pin features asymmetric geometry with two protruding appendages of different diameters and a contoured cavity with specific depth variations. The channel also has asymmetric sections with different diameters. This asymmetry creates a unique geometric code that must be matched by the key, providing high security without requiring multiple pins.
2Ease of manufacture
If conventional pin designs are used to maintain simple structure, then ease of manufacture improves, but vulnerability to lock-picking and forcing increases
Solution Approach 1:
The pin is pre-configured with a contoured cavity and asymmetric protruding appendages that create specific engagement points. The channel is pre-formed with varying diameter sections that guide the key's profiled groove. This preliminary geometric coding prevents lock-picking attempts before they can succeed, while the pin remains a single integrated component that is relatively easy to manufacture.
3Reliability
If complex encoding mechanisms are implemented to prevent break-in attacks, then security against break-in improves, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The security encoding is achieved by adding geometric complexity in the radial dimension (different diameter sections of the channel, asymmetric protruding appendages) rather than increasing the number of pins in the axial dimension. The contoured cavity and varying depth profile create a multi-dimensional geometric code that provides high break-in resistance within a compact single-pin structure.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The design provides enhanced security against break-in attacks and lock-picking without the need for additional components, offering a simple, cost-effective, and highly secure locking mechanism with potentially infinite encoding possibilities.
Implementation Method 1
interposed between said ogive and said peg there being arranged elastic means for mutually spacing apart with consequent arrangement of said at least one pin in said locked arrangement
Data Source
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Figure 2
Figure 3~4
AI summary
A break-in resistant lock cylinder (1) for a cylinder lock, comprising a stator (3) which is provided with a substantially cylindrical accommodation (4) for a rotor (5). The rotor (5) and the stator (3) are affected by at least one channel (6) for at least one respective pin (7), which is slideably moveable inside it. The arrangement, for locking, of the at least one pin (7) partly in the rotor (5) and partly in the stator (3) results in the immobilization of the rotor (5); the arrangement, for opening, with the alignment of an end edge (8) of the at least one pin (7) with the interface surface between stator (3) and rotor (5), which is obtained by way of the insertion of an adapted key (2) with a contoured profile into an opening (9) of the rotor (5) facing onto the at least one channel (6), results in the free rotation of the rotor (5) with respect to the stator (3). The at least one pin (7) comprises an ogive (10) which is provided with a contoured cavity (11) and a peg (12) which is provided with two mutually opposite protruding appendages (13, 14) and with a central rim (15) acting as an abutment shoulder. The at least one channel (6) of the rotor (5) comprises a first section with a substantially larger diameter than the diameter of the central rim (15) and a second section with a substantially smaller diameter than the diameter of the central rim (15) and larger than the diameter of a first protruding appendage (13). The front of the first protruding appendage (13), upon the insertion of the key (2) into the opening (9) of the rotor (5), is accommodated in a respective profiled groove (18), which has different depths at different longitudinal sections of the key (2), with consequent substantially complete insertion of the second protruding appendage (14) into the cavity (11) of the ogive (10) according to the open arrangement.