Rothy's
Rothy's uses magnetic shelves to give their stores a sleek look, but the shelves slide down the wall with the slightest touch. I was tasked with designing stronger shelves.
The current shelves used a combination of exposed circular magnets and inset square magnets.
This was an expensive, inefficient solution so they would replaced with fewer, stronger rectangular magnets.
The first design inset the black angle and reduced the depth of the shelf, to reduce the moment exerted on the magnets. It also brought all the magnets flush with the wall so that they could act with their maximum strength.
After discussing with manufacturers it was decided that the first iteration would be too difficult to produce.
The metal angle was thickened slightly to provide a backing for the magnets.
Since it was friction that was holding up the shelves, increasing the normal force alone would not be enough. A thin sheet of silicone was added to the contact surface of the shelf to increase friction between the shelf and the wall.
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A prototype was made to test the design, and it proved to be much stronger and cheaper to manufacture than the model in use.
