How do i split 2 lanes into a center lane

[LazerNAME55]

Hello Fellow memebers, im looking for abit of guidence,

I have a setup with 2 lanes moving iron plates and copper plates, i would like to balance each lane into a 3rd lane thats between them without having the plates crossing completly to the other side AND without exceeding the 3 belt wide footprint.

factorio.png (153.75 KiB) Viewed 488 times

As you can see i want to split each side so that iron takes 1 side of the center belt and copper on the other, ive tryed used filters on spliters but with no luck. Any help would be apperciated. Thankyou

[Tertius]

Something like this?

Screenshot 2024-02-04 134915.png (143.12 KiB) Viewed 471 times

[astroshak]

A splitter will respect lanes. So if you use one splitter to merge those two belts into one, you will have one output belt with iron on one lane and copper on the other.

If you are looking to have iron and copper continue down the outside as well as merge into the middle, then you would need three splitters (one to split the iron, and one to split the copper, and then the third to merge them).

If the iron and copper belts are meant to be full, and not just half, then you will need to do sideloading shinanegans as well as use multiple splitters to have an iron belt on the right, copper belt on the left, and split belt in the middle.

[Tertius]

Examples for manipulating lanes:

Screenshot 2024-02-04 181126.png (374.46 KiB) Viewed 425 times

(I practiced this by creating no less than 5 different purely belt based malls)

[LazerNAME55]

Many thanks Astroshak and Tertius, it seems so simple, im surprised that i didnt even think of these simple solutions