About
The Bianchi family journey spans more than 250 years. Although the company changed and grew through mergers and acquisitions, its dedication to quality, innovation and technology never did.
Over the centuries, civilizations built increasingly complex locks. They moved from wood to bronze and then to iron, and keys moved from clay to hand forged metal.
In 1770, in the Cadore valleys of northeastern Italy, Prospero Bianchi founded an artisan workshop producing wrought iron keys. That workshop started a locksmithing tradition passed from father to son for generations. In the Bianchi family, the saying goes, destiny is the key.
As societies industrialized, the need for protection grew. Locksmiths and apprentices around the world developed more sophisticated security systems, each shaped by local needs.
The key became a common thread tying the Bianchi family together. Prospero, and later Celestino, kept producing iron keys and refined their skill until they could make copies from originals. In the height of the 19th century the family printed its first key catalog and distributed it across Europe.
The early 20th century brought great change to key manufacturing, with new technology on the horizon and communities demanding more precise security.
In the fifties, Camillo, son of Prospero II, joined his father's workshop as an apprentice. He developed the key duplicating service, which let a shop cut a duplicate on the spot instead of ordering one from the lock manufacturer.
Camillo also moved the company from the mountain village of Cibiana di Cadore to the industrial city of San Vendemiano in the province of Treviso, turning the family's craft into an industrial business.
In 1963 he founded Italiana Chiavi e Affini, beginning mass production of door and car keys together with mechanical key cutting machines. Now any shop could cut any key immediately, and the business could grow worldwide.
Through the eighties, key cutting systems evolved quickly to meet changing market needs. In 1988 Camillo's son Massimo created the family's first electronic key cutting machine. A key code was now enough to cut a key; the original was no longer required.
Electronic keys also appeared in the eighties, marrying the key to electronics and pushing the Bianchi family to the front of that technology.
In 1997 Massimo Bianchi merged the company with the Unican Group, where he served as Vice Chairman. A later merger with the Kaba Group consolidated the group's position in the global key market.
After the mergers of 1997 and 2001, Massimo Bianchi left the organization to return to the family's roots. He acquired Keyline, an Italian manufacturer of keys and key cutting machines, along with several smaller manufacturers, to form the Bianchi 1770 Group.
In February 2003 the group opened its first North American company, Bianchi USA, Inc., selling Bianchi and private label keys, key cutting machines and transponder servicing tools through the locksmith distribution channel.
Many of the machines and tools covered on this site were later carried under the Keyline name.
From the Bianchi 106 to the Laser 994, or read why locksmiths chose Bianchi.