Mobile shelving or roller racking systems are specialised storage units designed to offer increased capacity for a given footprint over traditional filing units.

Mobile Storage Systems

Mobile storage systems (mobile aisle shelving or roller racking) are moveable filing cabinets mounted on a trackway. These specialised office furniture units are usually constructed with a rotary handle on the exterior accessible face. When revolved, the handle operates the mechanism which winds the single, connected, filing unit either left or right, depending on a clockwise or counter clockwise rotation of the handle.

By eliminating the need for an aisle between every shelving unit, more floor space can be utilised for storage. The tracks are leveled to eliminate gradients in the supporting floor. This makes it possible to move heavy units with minimal effort.

Powered Shelving

Powered shelving are as their name implies electrically powered. They normally have a small AC

Alternating current

In alternating current the movement of electric charge periodically reverses direction. In direct current , the flow of electric charge is only in one direction....

 or DC

Direct current

Direct current is the unidirectional flow of electric charge. Direct current is produced by such sources as batteries, thermocouples, solar cells, and commutator-type electric machines of the dynamo type. Direct current may flow in a conductor such as a wire, but can also flow through...

 motor hidden in the base that automatically moves the units when a single button is pressed. High-end versions connect into archiving databases, and using RFID allow the easy retrieval of archived items with auto open and close functions.

Applications

Mobile aisle shelving is typically used for academic or commercial applications where a significant volume of physical archive material, filing or books are to be stored. These include medical or government records, or file-intensive offices such as the legal or accountancy professions.

Capacity, Siting and Speed Advantages

A typical bank of mobile shelving units offer close to 50% reduction of floor space or a 50% to 100% increase in storage space compared to traditional filing cabinets. The ability to concertina individual units until touching means space is only required between units when they are being accessed by users. Applications with a greater number of simultaneous users may require more access spaces, thus not approaching this 50% target so closely.