Mosler Japan?

wylk

I’ve had this image kicking around for a while but I can’t find out where it was taken (other than, apparently, Japan; see http://www.flickr.com/photos/soul72/6903053905/ the photographer seems to be Japanese) or who made the door. Details:

1 - there is a blue/white/turquoise logo in the center.
2 - the same logo, even smaller, is on the time lock window.
3 - the single-block pressure-bar attachments on the frame make me think of some Mosler Century doors.
4 - to the right of center is a hard-to-see logo that is reminiscent of one of Mosler’s logos.
5 - just below the lower pressure bar, on the door, is a projection that might be an interlock (can’t lock the door unless it is closed, though in this case the door is open and the bolts are in the locked position).
6 - note the brass inset in the inner ring, this reminds me of Mosler’s use of copper bands on the door itself.
7 - note the discs covering the rack-and-pinion bolt mechanism, something that Mosler did (but others too).

So I’m inclined to think this might be a door built by a Japanese company based on Mosler designs, possibly with their permission or maybe even as a subsidiary of USA Mosler.

Here’s a picture I found today of a very similar door. The logo is more visible but not good enough to read. Also notice the power cord on the left.

Here is the Mosler logo I’m thinking of:

Can anybody clarify/comment on these?

Huw Eastwood

The more I thought about this the more curious I got 🙁think): I just can’t imagine a Japanese company manufacturing doors of that size under license- But you know what it’s like- never say never as the saying goes- as it can often turn out to be the case.

I’ve seen a few pics of similar doors with the pinion gears covered and always assumed them to be Mosler- similar to your pics with brass trim and some a bit like the Donsteel doors, I just added up the similarities and assumed they were.

Seeing the pics you posted has got me thinking of a really curious one also with covered gears and also in the Far East- has about a 2.5 or 3 foot thick plug- the odd part is that the outer 12 inches or so stands proud of the frame and is swung on a huge block hinge which must be pivoted onto a carriage shaped on the door- only ever found a side-on pic of the door edge and another of it swung open with 2 guys stood in front- blocking half of it from view. Another really unusual feature is that it has a single pressure bar at centre height which seems to project from the outer 12 inch thickness- very odd design. I think seeing the front of the door would answer everything- what looks like the solid outer 12inches of the door plug is probably just ‘boxed’ trim as it contains the pressure bar mechanism with it’s associated bearings and gearing. It would also reveal how the hinge carriage is integrated into the door front and would probably explain a lot, but I’ve never found a picture of the front. It also has the covered pinion gears in the mechanism like yours, but has no brass and without any badge or visible markings. Perhaps there was a tie-up…?

Chubb have also made some unusual looking round doors with a very clean-cut polished appearance and strangely they only ever seem to show up in the Far East as well- quite different to those in Britain and Europe.

There’s an Italian manufacturer that makes a modern heavy round door which has a similar hinge design to the one I’ve described above. I think the door is still a current model in Italy- tapered round plug with an incredibly chunky ‘block crane hinge’- a very unusual design, but it does make sense in a lot of ways from the point of manufacture. As to the others, it’d be interesting to find out 🙁nod):

wylk

Here’s a cropped version of the second door showing the Mosler-like logo.

Huw Eastwood

Well everyone heres just had a look and said it’s definitely doesn’t look like ‘Mosler’- the laptop I’m using hasn’t got the option to alter exposure, tint, shading etc. If you drag it into an app an play about with it I’m sure you be able to see it clearer 🙁nod):

wylk

Just on a hunch I started looking into the Kumahira company in Hiroshima (http://www.kumahira.co.jp/en/index.html) and found a few things.

The first door I showed at the start of this thread seems to be in Sapporo in an underground area that is part of the subway. See for example http://www.microsofttranslator.com/bv.aspx?from=&to=en&a=http://makotaka1117.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2011/05/post-6886.html and while this doesn’t establish it’s a Kumahira door, the “Mosler-like” logo could spell out the company name (I still can’t read it but that looks like it might be a “K” in the circle).

Images of a few Kumahira doors look like what MaxVaultage was describing. See http://nspacedesign.co.jp/project_en?item=1358 and select image 5 which is the Mitsui Sumitomo Bank’s head office in Tokyo –

And a couple of images in the Kumahira display room (http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=ja&u=http://rx7fc13.blog14.fc2.com/blog-entry-156.html&prev=/search%3Ftbs%3Dsbi:AMhZZitay8pgAZJKISw7YORI-Zj2pC-sCLAAZ-NKy4AQiZfZL6T_1q–sr_1SE77L6fxo-km5BYgVC7n3jHUcergs-GEQfP2iz3hp_1uLFe940W4HZYZSzhDKEOxHcLExwUUWUYCdzZemnTZtLelNzxksM9ROqMqaW1voVrSqmgFZdVJDnK9BBwd0IX1YpV_1nO0KbHZf3ok6dYZopJ9INEHJTDS6rgl_101w7hwbfrGnkq5DnFY3d6nbqiwORtS3dtHArfzjntgAKA4U5QFXuxIHNQ4V37H_1GgVlDx55SJfGmKgfG7KY0X4MWdG1ETAfM3HAx6_1J_1nX3vqr8RKR5_1-QULl69ChOsCqQRKR76a1921q-558OB_12wwUB3UqPK61Q9yi6nP_1TZbOWeHOrsf1eO3mqnvP73Tjs6eIi901ZYysAi1otULgF_1Dpig-IfylakJdeaF1Lcy5zDqD9y8wmFgJiXkWSc6UPN-vf9VtfWZ_1ijyPRZVitPnAzSo46yWaYGhyVHkxQ15OZ2dyouW15LLRBTsAFp-T1ZjQRwq1vRbfpKiuysok712Xr3PIJaqTbkFu2Z6rvKFUcSiLKQEB4ZuAclkEnCZp5DViXdvbF5OMxqG8hqFnNDTmIkY_1iuTYel8nHtwKQwY67psjx5Wb2SMuEUs3ZA4uEfzphyQg66BMfU4yH0vPH-zw8pjaP4UOSVmKMDrHBaq-42nPhDOyatACOtqdCztI0RB-j3nk9NToTZ0KPFaShlRgCvocEPLN96JwdTMBD78oY-aktvZRvJ167o5IfJPG7R1z5vA4toF2I0sXpMykll8oIuGCj5lo8-uEntq-FC-Nw3PYgUSd80NaAnuKPYOwF84AiHS9nwdpe1mkYnJAQRqO7UUA8ziFvC67GfHlSkybI9RWOARnHwYI-ajEl5gMvxcRFc0Ue5OjrBoyJc38gTzrhvhVfZ2VOaQaZTHfQ7g3yuNBCM5yt35QEMKeJjg8YUHerYPiFlv2jwxXHtL61vV1wMP98SW-cKaJ2O_1Dn-KxY_1cu5sjmv6t4EQ7KTgdNxy5hfXHhRgCcBd7uvQQMLYpS2Bt_1V1WZT5UfsiKVNidh7Cn3grL4obq2JhusUAuRKhr2aLuGLZWkLxQJvoRXr_1a1vVsMDBqsJTl9ioNx704uhmsfdSnfv3W-nBq0_1xdCSoWjatzQHM9Rw3hXKJ0hdI-6xI63oBpn9JsTgnY61m0iTslLaC-BSEG_1lq9sFIgX8ISPNH5N2J2AhT5BEVrERwpUu3YJql9ijK–AezlJptVVkLcIpURJexUu8hfnWg2u-M6QA) –

Huw Eastwood

Yes- the one I referred to is similar to the one in the last pic wylk, but there’s clearly a lot of variations- the pressure bar block on the frame in the 2nd pic is radiused to match the door, and the outer door standing proud of the frame is tapered.

The door in the last pic has the pressure bar block on the frame rectangular, and the block on the door straight edged and overhanging to meet it.

The one I referred to is undoubtedly one of these doors, but has the radiused pressure bar blocks, the outer door standing proud of the frame flat and not tapered, and with the quarters above and below the pressure bar block on the door boxed in to form the full circle- although this I’m sure would be down to the option decided by the bank simply on the grounds of appearance.

Interesting doors though, and as for the badge- everyone that’s looked at it my end came up with and ‘A’, a ‘H’ and an ‘I’ 🙁nod):

Huw Eastwood

Wylk- I’d never heard of Kumahira so just searched them now while waiting for an email, and quickly found that they’ve often used a circle logo with the K and H in it. If you look at your cropped pic of the logo it’s possible to see the K and then the U in the upper right of the circle resting on the K- the rest spells out correctly from there. It’s just a variation of their badge design- I think the similarity with Mosler is just a world’s apart coincidence 🙁happy):

Doug MacQueen

I can’t make heads or tails out of that logo, but it wouldn’t be so much of a coincidence. Even before WWII, Japan was getting heavy into all things Western. The Mitsui Mosler vault that withstood the Hiroshima bombing gained much Japanese respect and after the war, some U.S. businesses would have had some influence in the rebuilding as the U.S. controlled the country. Kumahira was based in Hiroshima. I have only one Kumahira brochure and it has the K and H in a circle, but I think it was from the 1980’s. The Mosler logo in question is more like the 1950-60’s, so it is possible it was copied or had even a more direct company connection. Doug

Huw Eastwood

Yes, the respect that Mosler gained after the atomic bomb and any potential influences they may have had makes perfect sense, and would also explain Kumahira’s similar, if not copied, logo- I think that pretty much ties it up 🙁nod):

wylk

I’m trying to track down a company logo seen on Japanese vault doors.

Example 1, below: this is a door previously discussed and tentatively identified as by Kumahira. But the blue-white logo in the center is a mystery in that I’ve not been able to tie it to Kumahira. I’ve tried their web site, and tried a search on the US trademark database. I even tried old versions of their web site on archive.org.

Example 2, below: there is an interesting abandoned vault near Mount Fuji that belonged to the Sanyo Securities company (no relation to the electronics firm), probably from 1996 or 1997. The Sanyo logo is on the outside of the door but the combination locks have the same logo as the door above. It’s possible these are Kumahira locks (and a Kumahira door) but again, I haven’t found any occurrence of this logo that ties it to them.

Does anybody recognize this logo?