"dumb" inserters

[mICHAEL]

I'm trying to automate green research packs and in order to do so I need to provide my factories with a steady stream of Iron Gear Wheels,as I have the other requirements to make inserters covered. My initial idea was to have two inserters and have one take the raw product in and the other export the Iron plates so that my factories can use them,but they then take the plates and process them as steel,which I don't need at this stage. Is there a way to tell them what and what not to process without needing to research higher tech? I've tried using smart inserters but they have the same problem..

[Teurlinx]

You'll want to use an assembling machine to make the gear wheels. The only thing furnaces make with iron plates indeed is steel.

It is possible that you still have to research the required technology. What you need is Automation 1 which should be cheap to research.

https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... ng_machine

[FishSandwich]

Inserters ARE dumb, because they don't decide anything. They put items in and take them out. The buildings decide what goes in and out.

[MF-]

I think the actual situation is as follows:

The scenario is furnaces being handled by two belts
One dedicated to coal input
One side brings in iron ore (and is blocked using the underground belt side-entry feature)
Other side brings finished iron plates out

The issue here is, that when there is no iron ore to be grabbed,
furnaces start producing unwanted steel while eating up desired iron.

The solution to that could be putting the iron and coal on one belt (and use a long-handed inserter, potentially)
and use a dedicated output-only belt for iron.


EDIT: Or are you trying to use an assembling machine as a storage chest? That isn't possible, right?
EDIT2: I returned to my original interpretation, that this is a smelting question and the "assembling machine" and "iron gears" portions of the question are completely unrelated to the design problem.