Aurora Quik-Lok Shelving
Four-post steel shelving for filing, records, library and supply storage — eight upright heights, four widths, thirteen depths, and a door, drawer and divider set that lets one shelving line cover the whole building. Specified, quoted and installed by MH-USA.
8
Upright heights
13
Shelf depths
29
Gloss-Tek colors
10 days
Xpress ship program
What Aurora Quik-Lok Shelving Actually Is
Quik-Lok is Aurora’s four-post steel shelving platform — the frame-and-shelf system most people mean when they say “Aurora shelving”. Uprights and shelves lock together with a keyhole and rivet connection, so a unit assembles without nuts, bolts, sway braces or hardware. Aurora’s patented Quik-Base does three jobs at once: shelf support, front base and floor anchor.
That matters more than it sounds. Shelving that goes together without hardware also comes apart and reconfigures without hardware, so shelf spacing can be changed after the room is loaded, and sections can be added to an existing run years later instead of being replaced. Aurora backs the structural frames with what it describes as a limited lifetime warranty.
Units are ordered as starters and add-ons, open or closed back, single or double entry, in letter or legal depths as well as box, X-ray and library configurations. This page covers the stationary Quik-Lok line. Aurora’s other product families have their own pages — see Aurora mobile shelving for carriage-mounted high-density systems, Times-2 rotary files for rotary cabinets, and Aurora Storage Products for the company overview.
Sizes, Capacities and How a Unit Is Configured
Aurora publishes Quik-Lok in more sizes than most four-post lines carry, which is why it tends to win rooms where the ceiling, the door width or an existing run dictates the dimensions. These are the standard published dimensions; custom heights in 1½-inch increments and custom widths in ½-inch increments are also available.
| Dimension | Standard options |
|---|---|
| Upright heights | 40¼”, 64¼”, 76¼”, 85¼”, 88¼”, 97¼”, 100¼”, 121¼” |
| Shelf widths | 24″, 30″, 36″, 42″, 48″ |
| Shelf depths | 9″, 10″, 12″, 13″, 15″, 16″, 18″, 20″, 24″, 26″, 30″, 32″, 36″ |
| Steel gauges | 18 or 22 gauge shelves; shelf supports in 11 or 14 gauge on heavy-duty units |
| Styles | Starter and add-on; open or closed back; single or double entry |
| Finish | Gloss-Tek powder coat, 29 standard colors, custom color match available |
Shelf count is a planning decision, not a catalog choice. Aurora’s heavy-duty shelf spacing chart works backwards from the clear opening you need: a 76¼” upright yields 24 openings at 1¾” clear, 12 openings at 4¾”, 8 at 7¾”, or 6 at 10¾”, with the leftover height shown as excess so nothing is guessed on site. Tell us the media height — letter files, three-ring binders, archive cartons, X-ray jackets — and we work the openings from the chart rather than dropping in a default seven-tier unit.
Double-entry (back-to-back) shelving is where the real capacity gain shows up. Aurora’s own comparison: 20 four-drawer lateral cabinets deliver about 3,200 filing inches, while six seven-tier sections of double-entry shelving deliver about 3,360 filing inches in half the floor space.
Accessories That Change What a Unit Does
The accessory set is the reason one shelving line can serve a file room, a stockroom and a library. Most items retrofit onto shelving already in service.
Quik-Roll and Quik-DoorA roll-down tambour door or a hinged Quik-Door closes and locks an open shelving unit. Common where patient or client files sit in a space staff and visitors share — whether a given configuration satisfies your own HIPAA safeguards is a call for your compliance team, not a product feature.
Retractable doorsDoors slide flush into the unit when open, so an aisle never loses width to a swung door, and close to a clean cabinet face. A security lock option is available.
Filing and divided drawersDrawers accept letter or legal, top-tab or hanging files, side-to-side or front-to-back. Divided drawers add partitions for small parts, samples and evidence rather than paper.- Rollout reference shelf — a work surface that slides out from under a standard shelf for pulling and refiling.
- File dividers — removable, adjustable anywhere across the shelf so folders stay upright as a section empties.
- Slotted back stop and center stop — stabilizes dividers and stops files pushing through; the center stop is what makes a double-entry unit work.
- Adjustable reinforcements — added under shelves carrying dense paper or parts to prevent deflection.
- Electronic keypad locks — keyless access on doors where issuing and recovering keys is the real problem.
- Wood-Tek end panels, laminates, acrylic overlays, whiteboards and cork boards — for shelving that sits in public view.
- Magazine doors, newspaper racks and library carts — for library and reading-room installations.
Where Aurora Shelving Earns Its Keep
Active records and filing. End-tab color-coded filing on open shelving is still the fastest way to file and retrieve high-volume paper, and it is the configuration Quik-Lok is built around. Courts, county offices, insurers, clinics and law firms are the usual rooms.
Library and media. Aurora’s library shelving uses an inner-wall construction that keeps the end of a tightly packed row reachable, and Wood-Tek adds real wood end panels and cabinetry where the shelving is part of the room design rather than hidden in a back office.
Supply, linen and stockroom. Deeper shelves with closed backs and box storage make the same frame work for central supply, hospitality linen, retail backstock and school storage.
Evidence, weapons and specialty storage. Divided drawers, lockable doors and keypad locks cover controlled-access rooms; flat files handle drawings, artwork and archival sheets.
Supply and stockroomsClosed-back sections and deeper shelves for boxed stock, linen and consumables.
Libraries and schoolsLibrary ranges, end panels, display shelving and carts for public and school libraries.
Wood-Tek for public-facing roomsSteel shelving strength with wood-clad faces for firm libraries, lobbies and boardrooms.A recent local example: Central Utah Water Conservancy District in Orem combined Aurora file and archive-box shelving with a Times-2 rotary unit — see the CUWCD records storage case study.
Wide-Lok Wide Span and Mobile-Ready Units
Two variants extend the same platform when standard shelving runs out of room.
Wide-Lok wide span uses the standard closed uprights with a 3″ beam and stabilizer package, in eight decking widths (54″–96″) and depths from 15″ to 36″, decked in steel or in plywood supplied by the end user. It comes in two series, and capacity depends on both series and shelf size:
| Series | Published capacity range | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| 1800 Series | 1,100–1,800 lbs per level, uniformly loaded steel decking | Bankers boxes, bulk stock, museum artifacts, large evidence, military ready bags |
| 1100 Series | 510–1,100 lbs per level, uniformly loaded steel decking | Lighter bulk storage where wide spans matter more than maximum load |
Read the capacity charts by size, not by series
Both charts are rated for steel decking only, and capacity falls as width grows — the 1800 Series gives 1,800 lbs at 54″ wide but 1,100 lbs at 96″ wide. We work from the actual width and depth of your layout and from the real worst-case load, never from the headline number.
Mobile-ready shelving is standard Quik-Lok ordered to mount on Aurora mobile carriages. Aurora states that a high-density conversion can save as much as 50% of floor space or store roughly 100% more in the same footprint. Wide-Lok can be ordered mobile-ready too, with a lower beam package. If high density is the goal, start on the Aurora mobile shelving page — the carriage, rail and drive decisions matter more there than the shelf choice.
Wide-Lok, standard Quik-Lok, Aurora mobile and Times-2 all share the same color range, so a mixed room still matches.
Specifying, Colors and Lead Time
Measure the media, not the room
Folder height, binder depth, carton size and the worst-case weight per level decide openings, depth and gauge.
Pick the frame
Upright height against ceiling and reach limits, single vs double entry, open vs closed back, letter vs legal vs box depth.
Add the accessories
Doors, drawers, dividers, back stops, reference shelves and locks — cheaper specified now than retrofitted later.
Choose finish and lead time
29 Gloss-Tek colors standard, or Xpress for speed.
Aurora’s Xpress program ships selected Quik-Lok configurations within 10 business days from in-stock components, in nine popular colors, with starters and add-ons in letter and legal depths, open and closed styles, 18 and 22 gauge options, and 18″ and 36″ X-ray depths. It is the right call when a move-in date is fixed; the trade-off is a narrower size and color list than the full line.
Aurora Quik-Lok is also available on GSA contract — federal buyers should start at our GSA Aurora shelving page. For published documentation, see the Aurora shelving brochures and Aurora shelving specifications pages.
Send us the room, we will send back a layout
Give us ceiling height, aisle width, what you are storing and how much of it. You get a shelving layout, a capacity summary and a quote — including whether stationary Quik-Lok or a mobile conversion is the better buy.
Shop Aurora Quik-Lok Online
Standard Quik-Lok units and accessories ship from our own store; anything configured, double-entry, wide span or mobile-ready is quoted.
Aurora Shelving FAQ
Is Aurora shelving the same thing as Aurora Quik-Lok?
How many shelves fit in one section?
Can I add to Aurora shelving that was installed years ago?
What is the weight capacity?
How fast can Aurora shelving ship?
Can Aurora shelving be converted to high-density mobile later?
Related Shelving Pages
Get an Aurora Shelving Layout and Quote
Tell us what you are storing and we will size the openings, spec the accessories and price it.