Compact smelting setup

Circuit-free solutions of basic factory-design to achieve optimal item-throughput.
Involving: Belts (balancers, crossings), Inserters, Chests, Furnaces, Assembling Devices ...
Optimized production chains. Compact design.
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Circuit-free solutions of basic factory-design to achieve optimal item-throughput
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slpwnd
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Compact smelting setup

Post by slpwnd »

In my last game (for playtesting the 0.9) I have toyed around a bit with compact setups for crafting. The inspiration comes from the setup with three belts for resources (two for ores and one for coal in the middle). I haven't found this particular setup here on the forums, so here you go:

This one is for early game (before 0.9.1 the belts to ground had to be on the resources side):
Mid game setup.
Mid game setup.
compact_smelting_1.jpg (97.53 KiB) Viewed 10937 times
This one is for when one has medium electric poles:
Early game setup.
Early game setup.
compact_smelting_2.jpg (103.11 KiB) Viewed 10937 times
In the game, I have used 2 copies of this for copper, 2 for iron plates and one little bit modified for steel plates. The nice effect is that the iron plates are coming out evenly distributed on both sides of the belt.

sparr
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Re: Compact smelting setup

Post by sparr »

Providing even amounts of coal and iron ore is inefficient, as is having twice as much capacity for iron plate output as for iron ore input.

However, it would be very difficult to make better ratios in such a small base (I will try!), so good work overall.

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Zourin
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Re: Compact smelting setup

Post by Zourin »

sparr wrote:Providing even amounts of coal and iron ore is inefficient, as is having twice as much capacity for iron plate output as for iron ore input.

However, it would be very difficult to make better ratios in such a small base (I will try!), so good work overall.
The design is fine, it isn't meant to fufill any OCD complex about having max-load belts straight out of the smelting complex. Fastbelting the dual-laned ore/coal belts is sufficient to move ore down the line at an acceptable rate as long as there's enough ore, as the design can be laid out in parallel for increased throughput.

This is a pretty standard dual-center layout with the best balance of space consumption and throughput. Electric Furnaces take up considerably more space, and are no better than steel furnaces when unmodded (and most people just mod those with Effectivity to cut their power draw). Using the underground belts is, tbh, a bit wasteful early on, as it's not hard to hold off on a proper smelting array until after that research is completed for the medium electric poles.

Dakkanor
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Re: Compact smelting setup

Post by Dakkanor »

i would say that this is as good as it gets if space is the main restraint.

i wouldn't know for certian because i like to design my smelting areas with the electric furnaces in mind(dual feeding coal at first,then changing the feed to pure ore with electrics)

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