raimundo wrote:kaotics pictures are almost certainly from an american padlock,

there are other good photos of security pins on
www.crypto.com, and I have recently heard of security pins that make picking very hard by being hexagonal rather than round, so that as you put on tension, the binding could be on a side or on an edge or two edges of these pins, and as you work your way between the pins, sets will fall out and the whole thing is on an unstable basis. I havent seen a lock with these pins, but as soon as it was described to me, I got how this would make problems for picking.
Hex pins. Cute trick. I haven't seen that one in a while.
Want me to tell you why it isn't popular?
Bollocks, I'll tell you anyway;
Yes, it does assist in messing up the picker, but it also jams keys and tears the guts out of the lock. Ever hear of a square peg in a round hole?
At any rate, I am sure they are still in use somewhere, but they never became popular before and I suspect they aren't going to get popular now.
Romstar