Lock Hardware Grades 1,2, & 3 – The Differences Among The Lock Hardware Grades

When you are seeking Lock Cylinder Machining Services, it’s best to truly understand the purchase you are making. These three grades in the lock hardware grades system. Each one of them is very important for the security professional. The door hardware grades as we know them today, the grade 1, grade 2, and grade 3 came about by two organizations coming together and developing a set of standards that a lock has to go through for it to be put in one grade over the other. Those two organizations were the ANSI( American National Standards Institute) and the BHMA( Builders Hardware Manufacturers Association). That’s what they did for door hardware, in particular, have they developed a set of tests that the lock has to go through to be put in the proper grade. Those five tests are strength test, cycle test, security test, material evaluation, and then finish the test.

One that stands out over the is the cycle test. that’s the closest element to the real world that we live in. When the lock gets put on a door, if it does not pass a long cycle test, it doesn’t matter the strength per se of the lock or the security of the lock or how great the finish is is, because that locks not going to be on that door for very long. The cycle test can be the most important of all the tests. The interesting thing about the cycles is the grades had to go through to pass. The grade three has to go through a two hundred thousand cycle test, that doesn’t mean that the lock could go to five hundred thousand, but it had to pass the two hundred thousand cycle test to be approved to be a grade three. Grade two has to go through a four hundred thousand cycle test, which is double over grade three. Grade one has to go through a million cycle test. The difference between a grade two which is a light-duty commercial lock and a grade one which is a heavy-duty commercial lock, that’s a huge difference. It’s over double of the cycle test between a grade two and a grade one.

 

To recap, the residential block, which is the grade 3 lock, which has to go through a 200,000 cycles test, which’s pretty standard. But when it comes to commercials, that’s a huge difference between the cycle tests. that’s important for you to think through when you ordering Lock Cylinder Machining Services. There’s a tendency that sometimes people like to choose grade two locks, they are a little less expensive and they’re decent locks. But when you think about the cycle tests that grade two and grade one have to go through, that’s a huge difference. And we need to make sure that you’re ordering the right lock on the right door. By knowing that cycle test, really will help you make good decisions, and click here to see more!