Card Locks and You!

Do you need to control security at your work place? Want to stop people from copying your keys? Need to restrict access to certain areas and see when people entered? Do you want to go keyless but are afraid of the costs? Worried an individual may give away their code if you use a keypad?

These are a few of the security questions that plague business owners and security directors. Anytime an employee or individual who has access to a key, loses a key, quits, or is let go, the security of the company is compromised. Once this occurs, the only solution businesses have, is to turn to a security professional to rekey the existing locks.

This is not only a time consuming issue but also a costly one. Many of the situations in which owners or managers find themselves in are last minute and unplanned events. When these types of events occur, it becomes an unexpected expense and time drain for most companies.

Now you have to call a security professional and have them come out on an emergency basis and rekey your existing lock. Because it is on short notice, or worse yet on a holiday or some other non-working day, it can end up costing even more. So for many businesses the question becomes how do I control the costs if something unplanned does happen?

The solution is to invest in keyless entry, and remove the need for your employee or customer to carry keys. Well what about employee’s giving out the code you ask? The answer to this is card locks, and more specifically proximity card locks.

What is a proximity card lock? Well the simple answer it’s a lock allowing you to have an item, such as a proximity card, that whenever you present it to the lock, it allows you entry. So what makes this so different than having a key?

The first is once an employee has a card, if they lose the card, quit, or are let go, you no longer need to rekey the lock. You simply delete the card out of the lock’s software. There’s no need to worry about someone finding the card and trying to gain access as the card once removed no longer works. And with some systems you can even know someone has attempted an unauthorized access. That point alone triumphs over the standard lock and key setup. No more security professionals to call and rekey your locks.

So what other benefits do card locks allow? Well they can be programmed only to work at certain times of the day so you don’t have employees or customers entering at any hour they wish. They can be combined with a keypad pin number so you can also give a code that must be entered at the same time as the proximity card; making it so that you must have both in order to gain access. With card locks you can also perform an audit of the lock so you can see when the card has been used. These are just a few of the benefits of using proximity technology in your workplace.

What’s next? Next is finding the system right for you! Today we will go over two exceptional and competing stand alone systems. Stand alone means it runs off of battery power and does not require it to be hardwired into any power source or cabled setup.

Push to card locks like the Trilogy PDL3000 is gathering momentum.

The two companies we’ll look at are Alarm Lock and Kaba. They both create a full line of stand alone key card locks. The card locks we will be going over here are the Trilogy PDL3000 and the Kaba E-Plex 5731. We will highlight the features of these locks and their individual benefits.

The common features and benefits of these card locks are the following:

• Installs on both standard commercial doors and residential doors which can be either wood or metal
• Software programming which offers specific time and date schedules, audit trails and card restrictions
• Heavy-duty Grade 1 locks which means they can handle large amounts of traffic on a daily basis
• Offers both keypad and proximity on the same lock with standard key override if necessary
• Battery operated with AA’s
• Non-handed, can be reversed from left to right handing with ease
• 3hr UL fire rating on the 2 ¾ commercial latch setup
• Multi-level security setup: Master, Manager, Basic Users
• Quick passage modes that allow full access w/o cards. No pre-scheduled event needed
• Prox card enrollers to streamline and simplify programming
• Can use Pin only, Proximity only or Proximity & Code (High security setting)
• Able to read and use Prox Cards, Fobs, and Tags (affix to existing cards!)
• Anti-tamper lock out
• 100% weatherproof

As for the locks themselves we will start with the Trilogy PDL3000’s features:

• 2000 User codes
• 40,000 event audit trail log (can audit key usage with the PDL3000K model)
• 150 scheduled events (passage, holiday & vacation)
• Pre-wired for hardwiring and remote release available
• Can be tied into existing Alarm and fire systems
• Accepts almost any variety of 125khz proximity cards using the proximity card enroller

More businesses are turning to card locks for security.

The Kaba E5731’s features:

• 3,000 User codes
• 30,000 event audit trail log (can audit key usage)
• 48 Scheduled events (16 timed passage, 32 Holiday & Vacation)
• Ease of installation with no wires due to Patented Lectrobolt which eliminates running wires
• Accepts Kaba proprietary proximity cards and must be programmed into software via prox card enroller

These are only two of the several different types of card locks these companies offer. If you have panic bars or mortise locks or if you have a narrow aluminum with glass door condition, there are versions of these locks for those situations as well.

Now as owners and managers you can feel confident you can control entry into your places of business by going keyless. No more high priced emergency fixes. You can now easily do it yourself.

Trilogy PDL3000 Stand-Alone Fob / Card Access System

Kaba E-Plex E5700 Extra Heavy-Duty Grade 1 Electronic Pushbutton Lock