Volna Engineering Company
 

Volna Engineering Facility

Volna Engineering building and grounds.
 

For the past fifty years, Volna Engineering has provided one-of-a-kind solutions to difficult measurement and tooling problems for the aerospace and defense industries. Significant trademarks of Volna Engineering design embody the principles of "kinematic coupling," as follows:

  • Any free solid body has six possible degrees of freedom in space
    — three of translation and three of rotation.
 
  • If a body has six degrees of constraint, it has no freedom.
 
  • If a body has more than six, a condition of stress exists.
 
  • Removal of constraints, one at a time, allows additional degrees of freedom for a specific task in any machine or measuring instrument.
 
  • A machine element with one necessary degree of freedom and more than five degrees of constraint will have uncertain performance (hysteresis), higher friction, and higher cost.
 

If you are currently planning a device, product, or machine that must possess high precision performance for the least cost, consider the use of "kinematic coupling" design principles. Contact Volna Engineering for consulting fees and possible fabrication details. One day seminars are encouraged.

 

Products of Kinematic Design

The following photos of Volna Engineering products are examples of kinematic design that have successfully stood the test of time with undiminished performance:

 
 

Other Products

 

Customers Include

 
  • Chung Shan Institute of Science and Technology, Taiwan
 
  • Honeywell
 
  • Kavouras
 
  • Micro Component Technology Corp. (MCT)
 
  • Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing (3M)
 
  • Unisys
 
  • U.S. Air Force Wright Patterson AFB
 
  • U.S. Navy, Bremerton, WA
 

Volna Engineering is a sole proprietorship founded in 1968 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, by William M. Volna, a graduate mechanical engineer. The 4,000 sq. ft. company-owned facility (above) contains a wide selection of lathes, milling machines, grinding machines, and welding equipment. Computer-aided design is used in all design drawings and documentation.

In a separate facility, Volna Engineering has added an optical fabrication shop with a 16 in. diamond curve generator, several Strasbaugh polishers, a 16 ft. optical bench, a 21 in. vacuum coater, a 35 in. vacuum coater, and an 18 in. Zygo interferometer.

 

Contact

 
William M. Volna Engineering Company
1808 Quincy Street Northeast
Minneapolis Minnesota 55418 USA
 
bill.volna@gmail.com
 
Home: (612) 781-4273
 
Cell: (612) 819-2580
 
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