What is this inlay pin?

[zeepia]

Took apart one Assa cylinder (thanks Femurat for the idea, works great!) and found something odd inside.

Nice security pins of course,



but these two brass driver pins with steel inlays are weird. Why are they produced that way? Steel insert isn´t magnetic but of course grips with one.



And same design is also with two key pins made of steel:

[GWiens2001]

Those are hardened steel inserts to make the lock more pick resistant.

[GWiens2001]

Oops, I mean DRILL resistant. For the ROTARY pick.

[zeepia]

Thanks, wondered what is the purpose of getting steel insert in a steel pin...

[Josh66]

The steel the pin is made of is probably not hardened, to minimize wear & tear on the key.

[Josh66]

Nevermind, lol. Didn't notice that it was a driver pin. It would make more sense to me to just make the whole thing out of hardened steel...

[femurat]

You're welcome, my friend

Very nice security pins. Yes steel pins are for drill resistance. Dunno about the steel insert, maybe the brass around it avoid wear in the chamber...

Cheers

[Wizer]

Are those magnetic, like in my lock?

[zeepia]

Driver pins are not but key pins are very slightly magnetic. Not enough to lift anything.

[cledry]

The reason they don't make the entire pin out of the hardened material is to save money. They can just ram a bit of drill rod down each and job done, versus machining and then hardening something.

[lockr]

The reason they don't make the entire pin out of the hardened material is to save money. They can just ram a bit of drill rod down each and job done, versus machining and then hardening something.

Yup, that's it exactly. Also what femurat said is correct as well, if you have two dissimilar metals making contact with each other in motion the harder one will win out and abrade the softer metal.

[atticRR]

I dont have mine apart yet, but i think you guys are saying that one of the drivers is magnetic and one of the key pins has a steel insert. If this is the case i would posit its a form of bump resistor-providing the two are in the same pinstack.