Sustainable technology is a part of the broader concept of sustainable product development and virtual
reality means existing or resulting in essence or effect though not in actual fact, form, or name.
Understanding the mechanical design is very hard to do because it is very hard to visualize the
mechanical design product and the performance of the mechanical product during design phase. To
predict the performance of the mechanical product during design phase is possible to do using Finite
Element Method technology (ANSYS Software). Virtual reality technology using ANSYS software can
perform the performance of the mechanical product during the design phase.
Product design is always interesting to most of the people. It is also becoming more and more popular
now a days. Flexible shield design is a part of mechanical design. Designing a product such as a
flexible shield as a part of a pump system that dispenses soap-products is a very interesting case
because of its nonlinear geometry and nonlinear material behaviour problem. The function of the
flexible shield is to protect the soap pump from intruding water. Investigation on performance of the
current design flexible shield found that the current design of the flexible shield has not succeeded yet
because there are no enough vertical reaction force in the upper part of the flexible shield after the
deformation 9 mm to return to its rest position by itself (the requirement is 10 mm deformation).
In the real experiment, the product must contain enough vertical reaction force on the upper part area of
the flexible shield to return to its rest position independently. At that situation, there is no minimum
turning point in the force against displacement graph. In the ANSYS simulation, this condition is
illustrated by the same graph force against displacement as the real experiment. To eliminate the
locking mechanism during the deformation, the discontinuity should not exist, which means there
should be no minimum turning point in the force against displacement graph.
The full scale tests (real experiment test) are expensive and require a lot of time, material and money.
The full scale tests is not the Sustainable Product Development way of Flexible Shield design. Using
Finite Element Method Technology changing material and shape are very easy to do and many other
designs can be made easily. Reducing cost, material and time of the design is the most important
aspect. Reducing cost, material and time of the mechanical design using virtual reality is a sustainable
product development in the mechanical design
The combination of material and geometry are two very influencing factors to the performance of new
design flexible shield. From the analysis using Finite Element Method technology, it is discovered that
the displacement position of the minimum turning point in the force against displacement graph of the
new design concept is bigger than the current design, which matches the requirement of the flexible
shield.
Designing the mechanical product using ANSYS software can reduce material, cost and time of the
product development. Finally, virtual reality using Finite Element Method is a sustainable technology
for Sustainable Product Development in the flexible shield design because Finite Element Method
technology using ANSYS software can perform the performance of the product during the design
phase.
