Master keys are keys designed to open all the locks in a particular series. A master key can open a variety of different locks so long as they are all in the same series. This type of key is used within large organisations, such as offices, where access to several different facilities may be needed by numerous personnel.
Master keys are often supplied for use with office furniture, meaning that access to any resources needed are available to any employee who has been granted permission by the organisation such as a facilities manager.
Change keys, also referred to as 'day keys,' are used by people requiring access to a particular facility, whereas master keys are used to open any locks that have been mastered so as to accommodate that key.
These keys mean that employees who need to gain entry to more than one facility will still only need to carry one key because, so long as all the locks they wish to open are within the same series, they will be able to open different items of office furniture with the one master key. This then saves them having to carry around a large and confusing bunch with keys for each lock installed in the premises.
The locks these keys work with can be opened by the single key which is specific to their lock and also have an extra mechanism which allows them to be opened by a second master key. The master key will be the only key which can open more than one lock in this set.
How Master Keys Work
Master keys work mainly because of the systems found within the locks they are designed to open. These locks have a certain type of internal mechanism which allows them to be opened in two different ways.
This system is created by a locksmith adding an extra pin, also known as a master wafer or spacer, into the cylinders which turn when the key itself turns in the lock. The key opens the lock by turning the pins which line up with the grooves in the key.
There are a vast variety of locksmiths and key cutters that can provide people with master keys, at Fast Key Services we can even arrange key cutting online so that you don't need to visit key cutting shops directly.
Because of security reasons, and to make sure that only authorised individuals have master keys for a company, some locksmiths may wish to see proof of authority, however all our master keys are directly available on our website.
For these same security reasons some of our master keys are not available to the general public and we will only cut them for professional organisations we can cut these keys using blind codes which are translated into bitting codes.
We set our machine to the bitting code they we have translated and cut the key using this same code. If a replacement master key is required then we may be able to determine the cut of the new key by examining a sample of the keys which are part of the set the master key belonged to.