A brand new Digital and Data Centre at one of the UK’s most prestigious educational establishments, Exeter College, is being kept secure and safe with an extensive masterkey suite that features hundreds of master keyed ABUS Zolit 2000 cylinders supplied by Exeter Locksmiths – the first site to feature this new product in the UK.
Zolit 2000 is a secure and versatile cylinder bespoke cylinder system that offers a perfect all-in-one solution for large master key projects like Exeter College. The Zolit range has a proven track record on prestigious projects across Europe and the 2000 version features technical copy protection, patent protection until 2034, plus trademark protection to ensure it meets tough security requirements.
Exeter College, is currently the highest-ranked further education college in the country. The new £10.3 million Digital and Date Centre, opened in 2021, is part of the College’s wider mission to revolutionise digital, engineering, and manufacturing technology education across the region. It sits at the heart of the college on Hele Road providing digital learning laboratories, state-of-the-art IT suites, and interactive seminar spaces that all feature cutting-edge IT equipment to help students to meet the digital skills challenges of the future. The landmark building has won various awards for its “overall playful and invigorating design” making it popular with students and staff alike.
Because of the number of people using the building and the security requirements of the site, the new building required a very complex masterkey system that ran to over 500 pages. Exeter Locksmiths chose the Zollit 2000 system for its reliability and because it offered sufficient flexibility for this multifaceted project. “We have been using the ABUS Zolit system for many years,” says Exeter Locksmith’s Tim Steer. “We chose the Zollit 2000 system for this project because it offered us enough versality and options to achieve the large master key schedule involved. In addition, we know the technical support we get from ABUS is always good – they really do know what they are talking about, vital on a scheme of this size.”
The ABUS Zolit locking system is fitted with the patented Intop system in both the cylinder and the key, providing effective protection against illegal key copies and manipulation of the lock cylinder. Optional side pins offer extreme flexibility for master keying requirements on complex projects like Exeter College with six spring-loaded locking elements on one locking row. Zolit offers strong drill protection with pins made of hardened steel, and protection against key forgery and lock tampering.
Exeter Locksmiths was founded in 1997 to provide a fully comprehensive locksmith service across Exeter and Devon to the residential and commercial sectors. The company will be rolling out ABUS Zolit 2000 master key systems across more of Exeter College sites across the city, standardising the security of the whole campus.
ABUS is a global manufacturer of high quality, innovative security, access & safety solutions with a nearly 100 years’ history of innovation. ABUS UK is part of a worldwide group of companies that supplies and distributes a huge range of both electronic and mechanical security products and systems for home, mobile security and commercial security.