Maglocks, keypads, RFID readers, fobs, exit buttons and face-recognition terminals — the parts that decide who can open a door, held in UK stock for trade accounts.
Every controlled door is the same four choices. How the person identifies themselves — a fob, a card, a PIN, a fingerprint or a face. What holds the door — in this range that is a magnetic lock, sized by holding force. How people get out — a request-to-exit device on the secure side, which is a requirement rather than a convenience. And where the decision is made — at the door in a standalone keypad, or in a controller that serves several doors from one user list.
Get the credential frequency right before you order anything. 125kHz (EM4100/EM4102, sometimes badged "proximity" or "ID") is cheap and universal, and it broadcasts a fixed number that an inexpensive duplicator can copy. 13.56MHz (MIFARE / NFC, ISO14443A) uses an encrypted exchange and is what belongs on any door protecting stock, cash or a residential block. A reader only accepts the frequency it was built for, so read the existing reader before quoting fobs to extend an old system — the two fobs look identical and will not work in each other’s readers.
Size the magnetic lock by the door, then fix the alignment. Holding force is a straight pull on a perfectly aligned armature, so a bracket that lets the armature sit flat is worth more than the next size up in force. A pair of doors needs a twin unit that holds both leaves. An outdoor gate needs a weather-rated body — an indoor lock on a gate corrodes within a season.
Magnetic locks are inherently fail-safe: cut the power and the door opens. That is the correct behaviour on an escape route, and it is why a maglock is not the right lock for a store room or a comms room that must stay shut in a power cut. On any door forming part of a means of escape, the release arrangement — an emergency release in the lock’s power line, and often a link to the fire alarm — is a fire-officer question, and it must be settled before the lock is chosen.
Beyond a couple of doors, put the decision in a controller. Standalone keypads keep their user list at the door, so removing a leaver means visiting every door with the master card. A controller holds one list, logs who opened what and when, and takes a dry contact into an NVR alarm input so a door event bookmarks the footage — the single most useful integration on a small commercial site. If you issue printed staff cards rather than fobs, the card printer in this range prints them in-house — encoding the credential is a separate step, so pair printed cards with fobs or an encoding-capable printer.
125kHz (EM4100 / EM4102, often sold as "proximity" or "ID") broadcasts a fixed number and can be cloned with an inexpensive duplicator. 13.56MHz (MIFARE / NFC, ISO14443A) uses an encrypted exchange and is far harder to copy. A reader accepts only the frequency it was built for, so match the fob to the reader — they look identical and are not interchangeable.
Match it to the door, and to whether it is a single leaf or a pair. Alignment matters as much as the number: the rated force is a straight pull on an armature sitting flat against the magnet, so a bracket that corrects the alignment on an inward-opening or glass door buys more real security than the next size up.
Fail-safe, always — remove the power and the door opens. That is correct on an escape route, and it is why a maglock is the wrong lock for a store room or comms room that must remain locked in a power cut.
Only with a compliant release arrangement: an emergency release wired to cut power to the lock directly rather than through the controller, plus a request-to-exit device, and on many doors a link to the fire alarm. Requirements vary by building and by the responsible person’s risk assessment, so agree the arrangement with the fire officer before installing.
One or two doors with a stable set of users are fine standalone. Once you have several doors, staff turnover, or a need to prove who opened a door and when, a controller pays for itself: one user list, one place to remove a leaver, and an event log.
Yes — a dry contact from the controller into an NVR alarm input bookmarks the footage at the moment of the door event, which turns "we think it was Tuesday" into a clip you can find in seconds.
The single-door kits sold boxed elsewhere are these six parts. We list them separately, so you can see what each one does and change any of them — a 13.56MHz reader in place of the 125kHz one, or a twin lock if the opening is a pair of doors rather than a single leaf.
Enough stock on hand right now for 5 kits.
As listed this kit has no emergency break-glass release and no battery backup, so it is not specified for a door on a means of escape. Add an emergency release in the lock’s power line and confirm the arrangement with the responsible person before installing on an escape route.
