（外文电子版资料）Opening Ving Card Locks.doc

VingCards These cards are used primarily by hotels, and our quite unique. The lock is a matrix of 32 pins which have two possible positions each [sort of like a vax...]. Two of these are special and arent really used in the keying. The remaining 30 are constructed out of standard pin and driver parts, except that all the drivers are the same length and all the pins are the same length. The pin-driver combinations sit pointing upward [the springs are underneath] in a sort of matrix about 1.5 inches on a side. Above each pin-driver combination sits a steel ball. The entire matrix is enclosed in a *plastic* assembly, part of which can slide forward [i.e. away from the user]. Some of you may be familiar with the keys: white plastic cards about 3 inches long with a bunch of holes in one end. Pushing this into the slot until it clicks forward opens the locking mechanism. The lock combination is set by inserting a similar card, only half as long, into the *back* of the lock. This card is the same thickness as the opening card and has part of the hole matrix cut out. A juxtaposition of this combination card from the back and the key card from the front closes the matrix: i.e. if you overlay the combination and key cards in their opening configuration, there are no open holes left, *exclusively*: i.e. where there is a hole on the combination card there is solid on the key card, and vice versa. Thus the complement of the proper key card is the combination card. This is enforced by the placement of the ballbearings and pins in relation to the sliders and top plate, so a workaround like a card with all holes cut out or a solid card does not open the thing. The combination card slides in between the conical pin ends and the steel ballbearings [and is thus harder to push in than the key card]. The key card comes in over the balls, and its thickness pushes the balls under its solid regions downward. So each pin assembly is pushed down, when the lock is open, the same amount, be it