Due to the wide range of available padlocks, choosing the right type of safety padlock is not always easy. Padlocks can be found in all kinds of materials with an endless amount of options for sizes, colors, shackles, key systems, etc.

There are safety padlocks especially developed for Lockout-Tagout applications. A good inventory helps you make the right choice in terms of material and keying options. Unique Safety Products can help you make the right choice to avoid making the wrong purchase.

Robert van de Ven of USP: “We visit large companies and we still see that simple padlocks, with a limited number of key codes without security options are being used. In some cases it turns out that people have been misinformed, in other cases, they have opted for the cheapest option, but this often results in disappointment".

The right choice starts with determining the right type of padlock. The most obvious choice for LOTO applications are the specially developed safety padlocks from Master Lock, Brady or Abus..

Benefits (safety features) of safety padlocks are:

• Key registration on end user
  Key cannot be duplicated, blank keys not available
• Supplied with 1 key per lock (1 employee = 1 key)
• Key Retaining: Key cannot be removed when shackle is open.
• Identification: available in different colors.
• More than 44,000 key combinations available.

Our safety padlocks are available with three types of shackle materials: nylon, hard steel and stainless steel. The Nylon variant is non-conductive and is recommended for use in electrical applications such as locking an isolation switch. The hardened steel bracket is the most robust and is recommended for use under the most severe conditions and the stainless steel bracket is also suitable for use in very humid conditions or outside. All safety padlocks are also available with various key options:

• Keyed different (KD)
• Keyed Alike (KA)
• Masterkey and / or Grandmasterkey support (MK, GMK)

Choosing the right key plan is critical and will largely be determined by proper inventory. The OSHA rule of thumb “one person, one key” implies that each employee may only open their own padlock or personal set of keyed alike padlocks with their personal key. These personal locks can never be able to be opened by someone else.

Robert van de Ven: “We always emphasize that keyed alike locks should never be distributed among different employees to prevent people from opening each other's locks. Unfortunately, we have already encountered this several times in practice, with all the possible consequences.

Keyed alike locks are personal or used by the supervisor during a group lockout. Smart use of a group lockout can save you several padlocks compared to the use of padlock multipliers ”.

Finally, Unique Safety Products, in collaboration with Master Lock, offers LifeGuard ™ key registration for free on all Master Lock safety padlocks. We register all key codes that are delivered. There are up to 96,000 key encodings available so that a unique key can be guaranteed at all times. In addition, Master Lock uses cylinders with their own unique keyway for which no blank keys are supplied.