Factorio Forums

In the screenshot there are three furnace arrays.

The bottom is a design I've seen others use. I'll typically do this for iron/copper - it's just good design (yes I see the bits of superfluous belt - now...).

I lay the same furnace setup (bottom) for all iron and copper except iron output belts destined for steel - these go in the opposite direction to other iron outputs, while the splitters are tucked into the corners a bit making room to switch the iron over to steel reasonably tidily.

Pretty

Have you tried outputting to a center line of underground belts with long inserters? That way is more compact.

Basically you have something like the following:
Tile as many times as you like in either direction. Just like the design you use, the side belts care the inputs, and the center belt carries the outputs. By putting all the belts in the center 100% of the footprint is used (not counting the empty tiles between the underground belts).

I use this set-up. It allows more throughput since it doesn't split the belt. Ore to steel crafting ratio is the same, though for some reason some plates accumulate at the bottom of the belt. Placing steel one furnace down would hopefully fix that.