Factorio Forums

Hello,
I would like to ask what's the best way to merge two parallel belts with two other parallel belts that are 90 to each other. All four carry the same cargo. I want a solution which offers good compression as this is my Main line.
Thank you for any help or suggestions.

How many output belts? Can I use merge belts, or does everything need to be the same speed?

LordFedora wrote:How many output belts? Can I use merge belts, or does everything need to be the same speed?

the output should be two parallel belts and with equal or better compression than input belts. You can use whatever you like but space is of premium.

Not entirely clear on the setup your referring to (geometry has never been my strong suit). A picture would be of great help.
But in general, I find the best way to merge 2 belts of same material is a splitter. Just take out a piece of the belt you want merged onto and replace it will a splitter, then have your other belt connect to the other input section of the splitter.

Here are some images

This is the 90 degree merge im talking about:




This is my solution works well but I wanted to know is there any other better solution than this:

Hm I guess if you neither care about the speed nor have any special other constraints then just do whatever you want

Might get a bit more interesting if for example you want to take most of the material from a special line (example spare local mine as long as enough ore is delivered via train). Then something like this may be interesting:

chlue wrote:Hm I guess if you neither care about the speed nor have any special other constraints then just do whatever you want

Might get a bit more interesting if for example you want to take most of the material from a special line (example spare local mine as long as enough ore is delivered via train). Then something like this may be interesting:

factorio_sideadd.png

The only problem is that T-joints have roughly half the throughput of the splitter joints.
I would love to have lower priority line joining the main bus from the buffer while still having 100% throughput, but I can't figure out how to do it.

Add a higher speed belt at the join ?

inb4negativerootbendsareevil

I would say that if compression is the highest goal, then your setup is about as reasonably effective as is practical.
Upgrading certain belts and splitters to red would improve things, however, with just basic belts, this seems to be almost optimal.

Nirahiel wrote:Add a higher speed belt at the join ?

It helps, but even blue T-joint can't compress yellow belt fully.
And if your bus is already blue, well...you are out of luck.

n9103 wrote:inb4negativerootbendsareevil

I have two words for the OP.

MOAR. SPLITTERS.

User_Name wrote:The only problem is that T-joints have roughly half the throughput of the splitter joints.
I would love to have lower priority line joining the main bus from the buffer while still having 100% throughput, but I can't figure out how to do it.

You may be able to "exploit" the asymmetry of splitters.

See here:



Note that this is not perfect. You will end up with some being pulled from the buffer regardless.

The Lone Wolfling wrote: Note that this is not perfect. You will end up with some being pulled from the buffer regardless.

Interesting. When I was testing design concepts for buffer, I got unsatisfactory results from the splitter side bias test case.
I guess the behavior displayed in this picture occurs only with partially clogged belt.

This is not always like so! It's much more complicated.

Please see the linked articles in https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... s/Priority

Sorry for the provisional state of the wiki article, but I think this is might change in near future (see https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... _mechanics )

ssilk wrote:This is not always like so! It's much more complicated.

Please see the linked articles in https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... s/Priority

Sorry for the provisional state of the wiki article, but I think this is might change in near future (see https://forums.factorio.com/wiki/inde ... _mechanics )

Let's move to another thread, because this kinda went off-topic

To bring this back on topic, this is just a cleaner design of a 2 belt T merge in my eyes.. basically just 2 single belt 90 merges and then a splitter to make both single merges equal..

[Aren't my photopshop.. erm.. MS paint skills just top notch? ]



(yes i know throughput blah blah blah blue belt blah blah blah)

Piranha wrote:To bring this back on topic, this is just a cleaner design of a 2 belt T merge in my eyes.. basically just 2 single belt 90 merges and then a splitter to make both single merges equal..

[Aren't my photopshop.. erm.. MS paint skills just top notch? ]



(yes i know throughput blah blah blah blue belt blah blah blah)

Hey, I like this a lot saves me 1 tile of space might come handy in some tight situations.
I think its better than my design as in mine the two in coming belts merge themselves first and then merge with the already merged main line and then balance out, but in yours each main line belt merges with a 90 degree side belt. It may not seem obvious when the belts are full but when they are not full you can really see an improvement.
[This was Photoshopped , I could not even tell, totally cannot locate the player] *_^
Time to redo my belts I guess.
Thank you every one you guys are very helpful.