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Investigating the effectiveness of layer reheating to improve the tensile strength of paused parts manufactured with material extrusion

Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Components manufactured with fused deposition modeling are prone to failure due to layer delamination, especially when prints are paused between layers. While prior research has demonstrated post-processing-based approaches for addressing layer delamination and improving part strength, little work has tested the effectiveness of in-situ layer reheating, and this study investigates this gap through an experimental study. To investigate in-situ layer reheating, a supplemental heater that can heat a paused layer at a given temperature for a set amount of time was designed and manufactured. A feasibility study was conducted with three variations of a tensile test specimen printed using PLA: (1) a control specimen without pauses or reheating, (2) a paused specimen with a 30-second pause between layers, and (3) a paused reheated specimen with the reheater at 90 °C for 30 s after each pause. Results show that the control specimens were the strongest (17.17 ± 1.44 MPa), followed by the paused, heated specimens (13.03 ± 0.71 MPa), and the paused, unheated specimens (7.44 ± 0.65 MPa). Then, the delamination strength of specimens printed with different pause times (15, 30, and 60 s) and heater temperatures (unheated, 60 °C, 90 °C, and 120 °C) were compared. Delamination strength increased with heater temperature and decreased with pause time. Delamination strength also converged to comparable levels across pause times when the heater was set to 120 °C. Therefore, reheating the paused layer can help regain lost strength due to print interruptions, and there may be optimal heater temperatures based on the material.
DOI: 10.1007/s40964-026-01693-w
Language: English
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,590
OpenAlex ID: W7154513032
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Cites: 25
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