Sintavia Uses NVIDIA GPUs to 3D Print Aerospace Heat Exchanger in Just 2 Weeks

Aerospace metal AM specialist Sintavia has dramatically reduced the design and validation timeline for a 3D printed heat exchanger from several months to just two weeks by integrating NVIDIA's RTX PRO 6000 Blackwell Workstation into its workflow.

GPU-Accelerated Simulation

The company used the high-performance GPU to design and simulate the complex aerospace component, which resulted in a part featuring 30% weight reduction and 20% improvement in thermal efficiency. The design was validated using in-house CT scanning and downstream thermal and flow testing.

"Because we operate in a fully digital environment—from simulation, through manufacturing and inspection—we are always looking for faster and more efficient solutions to reduce span time at each step," said Jose Troitino, Principal Design Engineer at Sintavia. "We are very proud that we have been able to do so alongside NVIDIA, Siemens, and nTop."

11x Faster Than CPU

The NVIDIA Blackwell architecture was deployed alongside Siemens Simcenter STAR-CCM+ computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software and nTop's implicit modelling software. According to Sintavia, NVIDIA's Blackwell GPU ran a 30 million-cell Simcenter STAR-CCM+ conjugate heat transfer simulation with over 300 iterations in just seven minutes—compared to 88 minutes on a 24-core CPU, making it 11 times faster.

This speed enabled the team to produce a fully optimised, 3D printable heat exchanger the next day after starting the simulation.

What This Means for AM

The case demonstrates how GPU-accelerated computing is transforming the AM design workflow. Faster simulation means more design iterations in less time, which translates to better-optimised parts reaching production quicker. For aerospace applications where weight and thermal performance are critical, this could accelerate adoption of 3D printed components in aircraft and spacecraft.

"The part demonstrates how Sintavia is pioneering a new era of thermal management with solutions that are lighter, stronger, and engineered for the most demanding environments," Troitino added.