Why am I, occasionally, having gaps on the both sides of a belt? I have more then enough furnaces(14>12.8) to satisfy blue belt. I've googled similar issues and tried to load on underground belts, and mb it somehow reduced their frequency but not completely removed it.
Re: Why my smelter have gaps?..
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2020 5:19 am
by imTheSupremeOne
Here is a blueprint string. I don't use mods, creative items from base Factorio. To satisfy the belt I need 12.8 furnaces, and I have 14, so it's 7 for each lane while I need only 6.4. And this is true in game as 2 my furnaces at the end and at the middle-end are working partially and are overloaded with output. But there are still gaps on the blue belt.
Extreme producing introduces new paradoxes you need to explore.
In this case the last smelter in the lane produces faster than its inserter gets a free space for a produced item (it's because item flow in the lane is uneven).
Also, inserter is unable to fill some two subsequent gaps because it needs time to take new items from the smelter. Even fast inserters can be too slow if beacons are used.
You need a small intermediate buffer between the last smelter and its lane. Try 2-3 stack inserters in a row (yes, inserter is a tiny buffer) or 2-3 additional belt segments for side load.
Re: Why my smelter have gaps?..
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2020 11:30 am
by Serenity
Many of these fast beaconed designs need some extra care to add the material from the last machine. Side-loading generally works to fill the gaps. 13 furnaces are enough with that, but you can do 14 if you want:
Sideloading1.jpg (152.77 KiB) Viewed 1509 times
Or an example from green circuits. Without the side-loading the inserters would miss the few gaps left at the end:
Sideloading2.jpg (84.08 KiB) Viewed 1509 times
Re: Why my smelter have gaps?..
Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2020 11:43 am
by disentius
Something like this. The output timer is not necessary], but it will save ups if you go megabasing.
