Mobile ShelvingAurora Storage Products › Aurora Mobile Shelving

Aurora Mobile Shelving Systems

Track-mounted high-density shelving from Aurora Storage Products — carriages, rail, drives and shelving engineered as one system, laid out by Material Handling USA for records, evidence, library, laboratory and parts storage.

Aurora mobile shelving carriages on floor-mounted rail at a city hall records room

Quik-Lok

Four-post shelving carried on Aurora mobile carriages

Assist

Mechanical-assist and electric drive options

CSI

Editable specification documents for architects

GSA

Contract ordering handled on its own page

High-density storage, built around one moving aisle

Static shelving spends most of a room on air. Every range needs its own aisle, that aisle is empty almost all of the time, and the collection grows anyway. Aurora mobile shelving removes the permanently open aisles: the shelving ranges sit on wheeled carriages that run on rail fixed to the floor, park closed against one another, and open only where somebody is working.

The result is a room that stores far more in the same footprint, or the same collection in a much smaller room — which is usually the reason a facility calls us in the first place. Records departments outgrow a file room. A police department needs the evidence room to last another decade. A library wants the stacks compressed so the floor can be given back to study space. A laboratory needs sample and document storage inside a lease it cannot expand.

What makes it work is that the whole assembly is engineered together. Aurora manufactures the carriages, the rail, the drive mechanism, the end panels and the shelving that rides on top, so shelf depth, carriage width, drive ratio and range length are specified as one system rather than assembled from unrelated parts. Material Handling USA sells that system, lays out the room, and stays involved through installation.

Aurora mobile shelving with wood-finish end panels holding library book collections

What a mobile system is made of

Four assemblies do the work. Understanding them makes the quoting conversation much faster, because most of the cost and nearly all of the site preparation lives in the first two.

Close view of an Aurora mobile shelving carriage base and floor rail during installationRail and carriagesSteel rail is set level and in plane on the slab or in a built-up deck. Carriages ride the rail on wheels and carry the shelving. This is the part of the system that dictates floor preparation, ramping and the finished floor level.
Aurora mobile shelving carriages and three-spoke mechanical-assist handles on railDrive and controlsMechanical-assist handles gear the carriage so a loaded range moves with modest effort; electric systems use an end-panel control instead. Drive choice follows range length, load and who has to operate the system.
Aurora mobile shelving shelves divided into compartments with white end panelsShelving and dividersShelves, dividers, back stops, file supports and reference shelves are selected for the collection — letter or legal filing, boxes, books, weapons, evidence or bulky items.
Tan Aurora mobile shelving end panels with three-spoke drive handles in an evidence roomEnd panels and finishesEnd panels close the system visually, carry the handles or controls, and are where colour, laminate or wood finishes and signage are applied. In public rooms this is the part everybody actually sees.

Manual, mechanical-assist and electric drives

Aurora mobile shelving open aisle over floor rail in a police evidence room

Manual systems are pushed by hand. They suit short, lightly loaded ranges — small file rooms, supply storage, a single bank of ranges in a back office.

Mechanical assist is the three-spoke handle you see on most records and evidence installations. A gear reduction lets one person move a fully loaded range smoothly and stop it precisely. It is mechanical, it does not need power, and it keeps working during an outage — which is why it remains the default choice for archives and evidence rooms.

Electric mobile systems replace the handle with a control on the end panel. Aurora documents an electric mobile line in the brochure we host below. Electric is normally considered when ranges are long or heavily loaded, when the same aisle is opened dozens of times a day, or when operating effort has to be minimised for the people using the room.

There is no universally correct answer. Rather than guess, tell us the range length, what is going on the shelves and who operates the room, and we will recommend a drive and explain why. Any specific effort, speed or duty figures come from Aurora’s published documentation for the configuration you actually buy.

Aurora shelving lines that ride on the carriages

The carriage is a platform. What sits on it is chosen for the collection, and Aurora’s lines are documented in the brochures and specification files hosted on this site.

Long run of Aurora mobile shelving carriages in a laboratory records roomQuik-Lok four-post shelvingAurora’s four-post shelving line, used for letter and legal filing, boxes, binders and general storage. Openings, shelf depths, dividers and back stops are configured per range.
Aurora Wide-Lok wide-span shelving holding bulky parts and tote storageWide-Lok wide-span shelvingLonger shelf spans for bulky, awkward or palletless items that will not fit a standard filing shelf — parts, kits, cases and equipment.
Aurora cantilever library shelving installed with filled book stacksLibrary shelving (MJ System 30 and cantilever)Cantilever and case-style library shelving with the finishes and end panel treatments public spaces expect. Aurora publishes CSI specification documents for these lines.

Aurora also builds Times-2 rotary units and the InterActivwall system. They are separate products rather than mobile carriages, but they often share a project with a mobile system.

Where Aurora mobile shelving is used

Evidence and property rooms. Evidence storage grows without permission and is audited. Mobile shelving buys shelf space inside a secured room without moving the room, and end panel locking options let ranges be closed when nobody is working in them.

Records and archives. Letter and legal filing, boxes, deeds and long-retention paper. Mechanical assist and clear range labelling matter more here than raw speed.

Libraries and education. Compressing stacks releases floor area for study, collaboration and staff space, which is usually the actual project goal. Finishes and end panels carry the room.

Laboratories and healthcare. Sample retention, charts and regulated documents in leased space where growing the footprint is not an option.

Museums and collections. Object storage with the shelf types, drawers and protection an accessioned collection requires.

Industrial and parts storage. Wide-span shelving on carriages for kits, service parts and cases in a room that has already run out of aisles.

Side view of Aurora mobile shelving showing tan end panels and mechanical-assist handles

Related pages: mobile shelving for medical records, archive shelving for law firms, evidence storage, and the non-branded high-density shelving overview.

Planning the room before anything is ordered

Mobile shelving is a construction-adjacent product. The layout decisions below are made once, early, and they are expensive to revisit after rail is on the floor.

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Range direction and length

Rail runs one way only. Range direction decides where the working aisle opens, how far a user walks, and how the room reads. Long ranges store more but move more mass per handle turn.

Accessible aisles

Accessibility requirements are project-specific and set by your code official and design team. Tell us what the project has to meet and the layout is drawn to it — we do not assume it.

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Floor flatness and level

Rail is installed level and in plane. The existing slab is surveyed first; shims, a built-up deck or a recessed rail detail make up the difference, and ramps return the finished floor.

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Structural review

Concentrated loads on a slab or an elevated floor are a question for the project engineer. We supply the system information they need; we do not certify the structure.

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Security and access

Locking end panels, range locks, keyed or keyless options and where the room’s access control sits are decided with the same drawing as the layout.

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Lighting, sprinklers and HVAC

Closing aisles changes how a room is lit and sprinklered. Coordinate ceiling trades against the final range layout, not the empty room.

How a project runs

1

Survey and layout

You send a dimensioned plan and describe the collection. We lay the room out, count shelf capacity for each option, and flag the floor and code questions we can see.

2

Specification

Drive type, shelving line, shelf depths, dividers, finishes, end panels and locking are fixed in writing. Architects can build Aurora’s CSI documents into the project manual.

3

Site preparation

Slab survey, rail layout, and the deck or recess detail. This is coordinated with the general contractor before delivery, not after.

4

Installation and handover

Rail, carriages, shelving and end panels are installed and the system is adjusted and demonstrated. Aurora’s installation documentation is provided for your records.

Scheduling, crew size and lead time depend on the size of the system and the state of the site, so they are confirmed in writing on your quotation rather than promised here. Ask us early if a construction milestone drives the date.

Aurora mobile shelving resources

All of these files are hosted by Material Handling USA and are the Aurora documents we work from.

Buying on the GSA schedule?

Aurora mobile shelving is also available to federal buyers under Aurora’s GSA Multiple Award Schedule contract. That ordering path has its own page: Aurora mobile shelving GSA contract 47QSMA21D08R9, with related shelving items on GSA Aurora shelving. This page stays focused on the product itself.

More Aurora: Aurora Storage Products brand hub · Aurora shelving · all mobile shelving systems.

Honest notes before you buy

Do not buy capacity you cannot reach. A denser room is only better if staff can still work in it. Count how many people use the room at once; two people needing two open aisles changes the layout.

Measure the collection, not the shelving. Linear inches of files, boxes on hand and annual growth give a real answer. Range counts derived from a guess produce a system that is wrong on day one.

Settle the floor early. Rail level, ramp allowance and the finished floor material are the things that delay these projects. Raise them in design, not on the delivery date.

Keep the drawing. The layout, finish schedule and shelf configuration make future additions straightforward. Filed away, they save a re-survey.

Ask for the parts of the answer we cannot know. Loads, ratings, code compliance and delivery dates are confirmed against Aurora documentation and your project conditions in writing. Anything you see stated as a universal number on a website — ours included — deserves that check.

Aurora mobile shelving FAQ

What is Aurora mobile shelving?
Aurora mobile shelving is a high-density storage system in which shelving units are mounted on wheeled carriages that travel on rail embedded in, or built up on, the floor. Instead of giving every range its own permanent aisle, the ranges close together and you open one working aisle where you need it. Aurora builds the carriages, rail, end panels, drive hardware and the shelving that rides on top of them as one engineered system.
How much space does a mobile system actually save?
It depends entirely on your room: aisle count, range length, ceiling height, column locations and the accessible aisles your project has to keep. The saving comes from removing fixed aisles, so a room with many short ranges behaves very differently from a room with a few long ones. We will not quote a percentage sight-unseen — send us a floor plan and we will lay the room out and show you the shelf-inch count for each option.
What drive options does Aurora offer?
Aurora documents manual and mechanical-assist drives — the familiar three-spoke handle that gears the carriage — as well as electric mobile systems operated from a control on the end panel. Mechanical assist is the most common choice for records, evidence and library work; electric is usually considered for very long or heavily loaded ranges and for accessibility reasons. Which one suits your room is a design decision, not a catalogue pick.
Does the floor have to be perfect?
No, but it has to be understood. Rail must be installed level and in plane, so the existing slab is surveyed and the rail system is shimmed or a raised deck is used to make up the difference. Ramps or a recessed rail detail then bring the finished floor back to the surrounding level. Floor condition, slab thickness and any structural review are project-specific questions for your engineer of record — we will tell you what the system needs and what we measured.
Can Aurora mobile shelving be moved or reconfigured later?
Systems are bolted assemblies rather than welded monoliths, so shelving can generally be re-shelved, re-dividered and in many cases relocated. Relocation still means lifting the shelving off the carriages, taking up the rail, and re-surveying the new floor, so treat it as a project rather than a furniture move. Keep your original layout drawings; they make any later change far cheaper.
What shelving can ride on the carriages?
Aurora’s shelving lines documented in the collateral we host include Quik-Lok four-post shelving, Times-2 rotary units, Wide-Lok wide-span shelving and the MJ System 30 and cantilever library lines. Choice is driven by what you are storing — letter or legal files, boxes, books, weapons, museum objects or bulky parts — and by the shelf depth and opening height the collection needs.
How do you keep users safe between moving ranges?
Design and operating discipline. Mechanical-assist carriages move only while someone is turning a handle; electric systems use their own controls and safety devices. Layouts should keep aisles clear, and ranges should be locked out during shelving, cleaning or maintenance work. Ask us for the safety and lock options that apply to the exact configuration you are considering, and follow Aurora’s installation and operating documentation.
Is this the same as buying from the GSA contract?
No. This page covers the product. Federal buyers ordering under Aurora’s GSA Multiple Award Schedule contract should use our separate Aurora GSA contract page, which is kept specific to that contract vehicle. The engineering is identical; the ordering path is what differs.
Do you help with layout drawings and specifications?
Yes. Send a dimensioned plan, the collection you are storing and any accessibility or code requirements, and we will return a layout with shelving counts. Aurora publishes CSI-format specification documents that architects can edit into a project manual; the ones we host are linked in the resources section of this page.
What should I have ready before asking for a quote?
A floor plan with dimensions, ceiling height and obstructions; what you are storing and roughly how much of it; whether the room is existing or new construction; and any accessibility, seismic or security requirements you already know about. That is enough for a first pass. Everything else — finishes, end panel treatment, locks, dividers — can be settled after the layout is agreed.

Get an Aurora mobile shelving layout

Send us a floor plan and what you need to store. We will lay the room out, size the system and quote it — no obligation.

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