Driving Innovation
Strength in innovation is key to dormakaba’s success and growth. With around 1,600 active patents and patent applications, we continue to enhance our innovation capabilities through strategic collaborations with industry leaders, academia, and research consortia.
dormakaba's innovation strategy is built on three pillars: Sustainability & Energy Efficiency, Interoperability, and Security Integrity. Each of these principles ensures that innovations sustain long-term relevance, operational excellence, and alignment with broader market and societal expectations.
We drive Sustainability & Energy Efficiency by developing and deploying technologies that deliver long-term value while minimizing environmental impact and energy consumption. This includes smart, efficient solutions like energy-harvesting and battery-free electronic devices that enable low-maintenance and eco-friendly operations.
Interoperability guides innovation towards open, connected systems that integrate seamlessly across platforms: enhancing scalability, promoting flexibility, and ensuring adaptability to future requirements. It allows dormakaba’s technologies to fully leverage the Internet of Things (IoT), providing support as mobile access solutions, AI-driven analytics, and adaptive user experiences.
Security Integrity reinforces our mission to protect what matters by rapidly adopting established, proven security innovations. This ensures that our offering not only maintains a high level of protection and compliance with the latest regulatory requirements, but also contributes to shaping industry benchmarks. Solutions are designed to anticipate current and future threats, increasing proactive security measures, reducing unnecessary data transmission, and anticipating emerging challenges such as quantum-based codebreaking. In addition, the use of AI enables continuous improvement by identifying potential vulnerabilities, enhancing threat detection, and optimizing security protocols.
A streamlined global R&D roadmap for optimized market impact
Our global innovation roadmap prioritizes the company’s portfolio across three streams:
- innovations that grow the business by opening up new revenue streams,
- enhancements of existing offerings, and
- solutions that protect operations by ensuring resilience and risk mitigation.
R&D efforts play a key role in advancing dormakaba's broader commitments to increasing efficiency, reducing complexity, and promoting sustainability. In 2024/25, we continued to build up new Engineering Hubs as part of our approach to streamline operations and concentrate expertise. At the same time, we strengthened our competitive position by simplifying platform operations, eliminating redundancies, and sharpening our focus on product life cycle management. These activities are designed to maximize customer value and free up resources for further investment in innovation and growth.
Selected Product Launches
Security Integrity for key verticals: airports, hospitality, utilities
dormakaba is a leading partner for the aviation industry. We provide the most comprehensive offering for airport passenger security, helping our customers to deliver a seamless and secure passenger experience and improving their operational efficiency. The Argus Air Interlock is a key component in end-to-end airport solutions, providing secure access control to restricted areas such as border crossings. It links biometric data to boarding passes or ID cards, ensuring only authorized access.
The worldwide hospitality industry offers exciting growth potential. dormakaba, a leader in North America, is expanding globally through continuous innovation. The Quantum Pixel+ combines sleek design with secure, high performance, integrating seamlessly with any hotel décor. With Room Key in Apple Wallet, guests can skip the lobby and go straight to their room – with no need to download an app– enhancing the guest experience and operator efficiency while reducing plastic key use. Both are supported by Ambiance Cloud, a scalable, cloud-based access management solution that streamlines operations across properties, enabling secure remote access control and perimeter security without local servers.
skyra brings enhanced efficiency and sustainability to the protection of critical infrastructure such as utilities, simplifying remote access management, integrating seamlessly into customer platforms, and requiring no power source or network coverage on-site.
Interoperability through shared platforms and the cloud
dormakaba innovation is about simplification: providing customers with comprehensive open platforms, standardized components, and seamless, secure data handling. The first products based on the Group’s new platform strategy, Terminals 96 00 and 98 00, are advanced time-recording solutions designed to enhance workforce management and efficiency.
MATRIX Cloud is one of dormakaba’s innovative cloud-based access solutions, offering secure, flexible, and scalable access management for modern businesses. It eliminates the need for on-premises infrastructure, reducing IT complexity and costs, and supports centralized access management across multiple locations.
Supporting sustainable buildings
Adopting new technologies allows dormakaba to enhance existing products with new functionality, and drive even greater efficiency and sustainability across proven systems and product families. The ED 100/250 swing door operator now features a seamlessly integrated emergency power supply, ensuring continuous operation during power outages. It can be fitted to existing ED operators or installed with new systems, offering maximum flexibility with minimal effort. EasyAssist is a low-energy door assistant for standard and fire-rated doors, offering cost-effective automation. In the event of a power failure, the door is securely closed mechanically. It supports sustainable building design through energy recuperation technology, lead-free builds, and certifications including EPD and Cradle-to-Cradle Gold.
Enhancing existing business successes
dormakaba is cementing its leadership in master key systems through a new generation of versatile reversible key systems. revy combines patented security, elegant design, and everyday convenience for private, residential, and commercial buildings. The latest generation of penta, quattro, and expert systems with extended patent protections offer secure, flexible, and convenient solutions.
High security CenconX lock is a next-generation, device-driven, one-time code solution designed to enhance operational efficiency and minimize human risk for clients and service providers. Integrated with a mobile app, it securely transmits opening codes directly to the lock keypad, automatically captures close seals, and logs audit data, reducing manual errors.
Extending innovation in the automotive industry
The Group has long had a strong position in automotive transponder keys. Smart Pro Mini is an easy-to-use car programming device specifically designed to help garages and locksmiths, offering fast, secure programming for over 100 models from popular brands including Ford, Volkswagen Group, Peugeot, Citroën, Renault and Volvo. Meanwhile, OBD Snoop ID47/ID49-1E, which assists automotive locksmiths and professionals in cloning transponder keys, now extends to best-selling models like Ford Mondeo and Transit, Dacia Duster, and Nissan Micra.