JBAI & WILKABrowse Wilka Products
The pinnacle of locking technology, WILKA Schließtechnik GmbH has over 150 years of history making high-quality products from their base in Velbert, Germany.
Founded in 1865 by Wilhelm Karrenberg, the company initially solely consisted of him and his sons – Julius, August and Ernst. These four gradually extended the product range of the company; after starting off with a focus on furniture locks, they eventually started manufacturing locks for interior and exterior doors.
Early success meant that by 1888 the workforce had increased to 18 people. Just six years later, the company sent their first products abroad.
By the 1920s the company started producing the first lock cylinders; these designs would replace simpler tumbler locks and were a response to the increase in safety requirement standards expected in lock design.
During the 1950s WILKA started to produce its first profile cylinders, and soon after became the first company to produce a locking cylinder that contained a total of six locking pins. Later that decade they became the first company in Germany to produce a ‘knob’ lock – a design that had originated in the USA – and remained the only company producing it until the 1990s.
The 70s marked the birth of the tubular frame locks in the lock sector. A respectable range was built up here due to the extensive use of aluminium and synthetic profiles in door construction. Heightened home security concerns and a rising burglary rate also saw the introduction of the multi-point locking system in 1978.
By the 1990s WILKA had over 300 employees to cope with the growing demands on what was now a truly successful company.
The rising use of computer-aided design and laser-cutting enabled WILKA to produce locking ranges faster and with more precision; with quality control thus becoming an increasingly important factor, the business achieved the ISO 9001 quality management standard in 1996.
This was the same year that they produced the world’s first mechatronic cylinder lock, bridging the gap between mechanical and electronic locking devices.
In 2001 WILKA opened its first international subsidiary location in Poland, with a factory following in 2006 to allow them to better cater to the Eastern European market.
WILKA manufactured their first electronic cylinder in 2008 – the same year they were involved in the creation of a dedicated university initiative in the Velbert region that focused on hardware and security technology, based at the University of Wuppertal.
Now, the company is now under the instruction of the sixth generation of the family, and WILKA remains dedicated to staying at the forefront of locking design and production.
Continued research and development mean their designs remain at the pinnacle of the field.
If you buy a lock from WILKA, you’re guaranteed a quality, German-engineered product that won’t let you down!