RCO Security is a Swedish company established in 1976. Today, they have approximately 50 employees and are market leaders in products and systems for electronic and keyless locks. They deliver products such as code locks, electromechanical locks, and access control systems. Other product types include integrated alarm systems and intercoms.

When RCO wanted to develop a new electric motor driven locking cylinder, Svekon were given the task of carrying out a preliminary study in order to create a proposal for a technical solution. The assignment was extended and developed further into a new product family of readers for cable-less installation, called NoKey.

This assignment came to comprise everything from studies to the start-up of production. Several prototypes were developed during the process, including freeform prototypes, which were produced using SLS and SLA technology. Production tools were also developed.

MANUFACTURE AND TESTING

Several production methods were used to manufacture NoKey, including zinc die-casting, injection moulding, sintering, NC-machining, die-casting and MIM. Cost optimisation and production adjustment of the product were key parts of the project.

In addition to developing design and manufacturing blueprints, including dimensional calculations, Svekon also produced installation manuals for each version, as well as test rigs, in which the programming of the test program (Labview), pneumatics, electronics, et cetera were included. Validation and verification was then carried out in these test rigs.

The result of all of this was the cost effective and high quality product launched in 2014: the NoKey offline reader series. The product series was presented at the SKYDD security exhibition in Älvsjö in October of the same year, where it was received very positively.

“The person I would like to give particular credit to as extremely important and, most of all, talented, committed and creative in this context is the engineer from Svekon, with whom I worked very closely throughout the entire project. His dedication and loyalty, as well as great care, has ensured that these products will be well received by the market.”

Lars-Åke Mattson, CEO, RCO

“It has been a fun journey from idea to a finished product that the customer is very much invested in. What started out as a single cylinder lock unit grew into a whole series of locks. The development entailed major technical challenges, especially in terms of production engineering, in order to keep costs down, but we were able to solve those problems. The customer has been a great partner, and I appreciate their quick decision-making.”

Gunnar Färner, Design engineer, Svekon