Zeiss Ikon keys

[han_fey]

Some Zeiss-Ikon keys from around 1980. The Ikotron, the WSW and Verso were all high security cylinders in that time frame.

From top to bottom:

The most advanced one, the Ikotron 7-pins Sperrippen (1RP21) has a coil in the back of the key and electronics in the bow. During insertion of the key an inductive voltage is created. This voltage is required to “talk” with the electronics in the bow. I assume this is the most expensive, advanced and rare production key from Ikon.

The second key, the Ikon WSW W30 key was the first produced key from the W30 production line. WSW stands for Wende Schluessel Welle. Originally was planned that the name should be Wende Schluessel Widen. This should than be the first reversible key from Bo Widen. Ikon decided however not to use a personal name in their cylinder types. The W30 is rare, the W10 is common and the W20 is in my opinion impossible to get.

The third key comes from a simple Ikon cylinder with only 3-pins. This key is at the moment the most simple key I have seen from Ikon.

The fourth key is the first mechanical Ikon Verso key. Only a few thousand of these keys are made. Later Ikon made the bow from plastic, because it possibly was cheaper.
Because the WSW and Verso were launched in the same time frame, they have the same keybow.
All demo keys from Ikon have the coding 65xxxx.


https://imgur.com/VJxzHP3
https://imgur.com/ldYBb0I
https://imgur.com/xDqqs5D

[han_fey]

The mechanically most advanced keys from Ikon.

These are Ikon System-M keys with an Ikotron Codeträger in the bow.
The first key is mechanically an “ordinary” System-M key. Maybe only special on it is that it is a key from a GMK-system. You can recognize this on the 2 dimple holes nearby each other on the top rib, on the left side of the key nearby the bow. In cylinders from GMK systems, there is an extra ball-bearing in the plug on that position. System-M GMK keys also have a bottom rib, without cuts, this is done to prevent that some mono-keys by accident could work in GMK-cylinders. Point is that mono-keys fit 180° twisted in the GMK keyway.
The other key is the same but has an emergency function in it. The emergency key has a spring in it, which makes that you can open the cylinder when there is a normal key inserted on the inside. This key does not have the “double” dimple in front of the key.
Ikon is not unique with these springs in their emergency keys. Many German manufacturers have similar keys with springs in their emergency keys.

https://imgur.com/Rw3lN5H

https://imgur.com/Ul33RTz

[Squelchtone]

Hello Han Fey!

Been a long time, nice to see you on the forum. Thank you for sharing such wonderful photos with us!

Squelchtone

[mh]

Yes, thanks for sharing these photos.

The Ikotron was my dream lock at that time; too expensive, though, the budget only allowed for DOM ix10.

[jwrm22]

Zi-Ikon has a very nice range of locks, most of which are already forgotten. I was unaware the Ikotron exists and would have loved to analyze it.

[GWiens2001]

Welcome back, Han_Fey! Thanks for the info.

Gordon

[han_fey]

Yes, thanks for sharing these photos.

The Ikotron was my dream lock at that time; too expensive, though, the budget only allowed for DOM ix10.

Me the same, but now I have some IKOTRON cylinders. They are marvellous. I will post some pictures in the future.

[han_fey]

These Ikon Ikotron keys are one of the most secure keys in my High Security collection.

They already have the extended shaft for the use in security escutcheons (and this was in the former century) These cylinders were mostly use in high security environments. The Bo Widen logo is also visible nearby the bow.

I found in an old price list that only one Europrofile cylinder costed more than 400 euro, without any key and the software etc. Therefore this system is not so known by the big public.

This system has 3 layers of security.
1. The 6-pin pintumbler mechanism
2. The Sperwellen / Fingerpins mechanism
3. The Ikotron electronic system

The inductive reading was breaking ground in that time-frame.

I thought that in 2004, Ikon became member of the ASSA Abloy group and therefore they had to continue with Cliq.

This key is rare and unique.

https://i.imgur.com/Y3yyKbK.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/zLirVDd.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/LrdGF1i.jpg

[1d4]

The only Zeiss Ikon keys I've seen are their cruciform keys

[han_fey]

Here some information about Zeiss-Ikon cruciform keys.


This is a example of an high security Old Cross Profile cylinder from Zeiss Ikon from 1955. In this time frame this was really a high security lock. Nowadays we all have standardized cylinder shapes. This strange shape of the
cylinder you can compare with the modern camlock.

I found this cylinder in one of my many boxes with old cylinders.

What is special about this cylinder is the keyway, coded “XS1A” and the
high number of pins.

The characters "XS" stand possibly for Xtra-Sicher. I have seen this coding on more Zeiss-Ikon cross profile cylinders with 12-pins.

This cylinder has active 4 pins on the right, 4 active pins on the left and 4 active pins on top, so 12 active pins total. The key can only be inserted on one side.

In the standard “1” keyway (the normal cross key profile) you can insert the key on both sides of the door. These cylinders have only 3 x 2 pins in them. So 6 pins total. You can see that the cuts in this standard “1” key are mirrored.

These standard “1” cylinders can be easily raked. The “XS1A” profile cannot or at least it will be much harder…., these 12 pins.

The coding “A” stands for the number of times this key bitting is produced…..
In the past Ikon wanted to keep track on how many time the same key was produced. In the standard “1” keyways you therefore see, 1A, 1B, 1C etc.
When you have a key with the coding 1C, this should practically mean that the same key is given out, 2 time before etc.

Ikon made many different keyways / special products in their cross-profile cylinders. This is just one of them.

This specific cylinders was made for high security use and not sold to the public.

My estimation is that Zeiss-Ikon has around 20 different Cross-profile keyways / systems. I think, I maybe have 18.

When your look carefully at their keyways, you can see the differences.

The Devil is in the details, with these cylinders.

[han_fey]

Here the pictures from the old Zeiss-Ikon cruciform keys.

https://i.imgur.com/toEafuq.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/mMNTj7P.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/dIjSAeQ.jpg

https://imgur.com/a/OkhCDPw