About
Volkan Cakir
Mechanical Design Engineer
View LinkedIn profileI'm Volkan — a mechanical design engineer who likes designs that survive contact with the production floor. My work spans parametric CAD, DFM and rapid prototyping, with a particular fondness for aluminium: extrusions, machined parts, and the small details that make them manufacturable.
Today I work with clients remotely on part and product design, machine design, manufacturing drawings and assembly support. If a part is easy to make, easy to assemble and hard to break, I call it done.
Tools & Software
Experience
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2025 — Present
R&D Manager — Aluminium Manufacturing
Leading a team of nine engineers and technicians, and owning the design pipeline end to end: part and product design, tooling and fixtures, FEA/CFD verification, manufacturing drawings and GD&T through to production release. Press dies, bending and welding fixtures, jigs, gauges, CNC machinery and automation systems. PPAP and APQP submissions under IATF 16949 and VDA for automotive customers.
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2017 — 2025
Senior Mechanical Engineer, R&D — Automotive & Aluminium Manufacturing
Design of stamping dies, bending tools, welding and assembly fixtures, jigs, gauges, CNC machinery and automation systems. FEA/CFD-driven optimization cut tool fatigue failures by 80%; fixture and CAM improvements raised production output by 35%. 50+ automotive projects carried through PPAP & APQP into serial production (IATF 16949 / VDA).
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2015 — 2017
Research Assistant — Istanbul Technical University
Research on ship and propeller hydrodynamics. CFD studies on supercavitating foils and propellers improved efficiency by 5–10%.
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2014 — 2015
Marine Engineer — Shipyard
Design of outfitting systems (electrical, HVAC, plumbing, fire protection) to class and industry standards; sea trials and performance analysis.
Education & Certificates
- MSc, Marine Engineering — Istanbul Technical University (thesis: supercavitating blade sections for marine current turbines)
- BSc, Naval Architecture & Marine Engineering — Istanbul Technical University
- Certificates: IATF 16949 · VDA QMC · ISO 9001 · Lean Six Sigma Green Belt · Ansys Workbench & Advanced Fluent · Advanced SolidWorks