Medeco
Medeco is a high-security lock manufacturer, located in Roanoke County, Virginia, United States. Medeco is a subsidiary of the Swedish Assa Abloy Group.
Mechanical Development Company, a tool and die shop, originally started in the mid-1950s by Paul A. Powell and Roy C. Spain in his basement in the Cave Spring area of Roanoke County. Spain later designed and received a patent (No. 3,499,303) for his new lock, which subsequently began Medeco as a company. Medeco was established in 1968 named after "Mechanical Development Company" in Salem.
As a promotional campaign, Mr. Spain advertised that anyone who could pick his new lock would receive $50,000. Many tried and failed, except for one detective from New York City, who was able to pick the lock once but not twice.
Mr. Spain's unique locking principle of angled key cuts and elevating and rotating pin tumblers that provided millions of key combinations and a level of security that was unmatched in its time. The locks were highly resistant to most forms of attack. The company expanded rapidly and contracted its original name into Medeco. The company's present 130,000-square-foot (12,000 m2) facility was opened in the mid 1970s.
Mechanical Development Tool and Die Company founded by Mr. Powell and Mr. Spain, is located in Salem, VA. and still in business by the family members of Paul A. Powell.
In 1985, Medeco developed a new design under the trade name Biaxial. It provided high security and key control through the use of the elevating and rotating tumbler design and provided greater master keying capability due to double cuts on the keys and special offset tips on the pins. Additionally, hardened steel inserts were placed to defend against physical attack.
In 1995, Medeco introduced a product called Keymark for installations requiring strong patented key control without the need for additional drill and pick resistant features. The interchangeable core directly retrofits small format interchangeable cores (SFIC) followed by Medeco's latest high security product, Medeco3 in 2001.
In the early 1990s, Medeco started their electronic lock initiative by launching VLS, an electromechanical solution, which was heavily utilized in the payphone industry. Later in 1997, Medeco followed up with an EAC solution in Siteline, a contact/controller based product. With previous success in industrial applications, Medeco redesigned the VLS application to fit the parking industry in the late 1990s then launched their NEXGEN product geared toward parking, vending and other industrial applications in 2001. Medeco followed up NEXGEN late in 2006 with Logic using the ASSA ABLOY CLIQ Technology, and Hybrid Keys using Prox and IClass technology in 2007.
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