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Hi folks, here are some some highly compact factory module patterns I have been using for red and green science pack production, which are very easy to attach to your main copper/iron/circuit trunk. Let me know what you think!

The 3-3 Science Module Stage 1:
Requirements: Automation, Logistics



Can be built super early, you only have to manual build 30 red science packs. Iron Gears have a wooden chest buffer limited to 1 stack.



The 3-3 Science Module Stage 2:
Requirements: Automation, Logistics, Automation 2



Can be built almost entirely while waiting for automation 2 to complete, Initially uses on-site circuit production. The Iron gear assembler has been upgraded to an assembler 2, this little guy is basically your star player here, he directly supplies 5 assemblers and effects a further 3.



The 3-3 Science Module Stage 3:
Requirements: Automation, Logistics, Automation 2, Electronics, Advanced Electronics



All assemblers upgraded to assembler 2.
Circuit production moved off-site to a dedicated high output circuit assembly module. Belt and inserter assembler switched to inventory transfers and limited with green wire so the final chest is not blocked out with 348765387452 basic belts .
Wheel assembler to Red Assembler buffer limited with a green wire circuit (for future logistics passive provider, yes in the picture there are already passive providers but smart chests will work fine for this stage if you dont have logistic System).
The long hand inserter from Gears to Belts replaced with fast inserters and 1 stack wooden chest buffer (its important that all of the iron gear assemblers outputs are the same speed, fast/smart inserters are the same speed), the long hand is there initially to save on power usage.



The 3-3 Science Module Stage 4:
Requirements: Automation, Logistics, Automation 2, Electronics, Advanced Electronics, Logistics 2, Logistic System (optional)



The final stage of this pattern, The stage mainly allows the introduction of a fast belt assembler to use up excess idle time on the belt assembler. You will note that the fast belt assembler takes the place of the basic belt assembler, this is because the fast belt recipe requires 5 iron gears while the basic belt requires only 1. With the fast belt assembler in that position, it can benefit from the inserter stack size upgrade from the wooden chest buffer (lifting from the belt would be 1 at a time, which is fine for basic belts). The basic belt assembler will still operate fully while long hand grabbing from the iron gear tunnel.
The basic belt assembler will now need to perform a inserter-to-inserter hand off transfer to get its belts to the Green pack assemblers, they both must be smart inserters (the output for green circuit limit from final chest, and its hand off needs a basic belt filter so it wont lift iron plates).
(Optional) You can upgrade the final chests to passive provider chests so all of these items will be on your logistics network.


I have used the 3-3 Science Module in several games now and it performs admirably, I usually never have to touch it after its built, it just sits there and churns out science. The Inserter assembler has enough idle time to support a fast inserter assembler + smart inserter assembler for the blue science packs (can support 4/5 blue pack assemblers), however I would advise not using its on-site circuit assembler as well (if you decided not to move circuits off-site). The on-site circuit assembler simply does not have the power to support a fast inserter assembler and smart inserter assembler.

If your wanting a little bit more output from your small area here are the current prototypes I'm working on... just trying to squeeze as much science out of a compact area as possible . These prototypes are high output orientated, and not very versatile for additional uses (e.g. fast belt builder).



The 4-4 Science Module Prototype 1:



Uses off-site circuit production, I generally prefer to belt circuits from a dedicated module on the main trunk than build on-site, personally I would never do this with Iron Gears they are so quick and easy to make, perfect for on-site production and wont bloat your main trunk with a mostly useless iron gear belt.
This pattern has a science pack buffer at the end which is very handy, the standard inserters on the buffers will just keep up with pack production and no more (saves power).


The 4-4 Science Module Prototype 2:



Pretty much the same as prototype 1, but uses on-site circuit production.



So there we are folks, please let me know what you think of these and let me know if you can see ways to improve these patterns in either power savings, general output, compactness, etc. (please use pictures! )

First Impression: wow, I need to have a deeper look into that.

Great post! Very nice builds you have there, I have one point of criticism though, your red:green ratio is asymmetric, the red packs cost 5 seconds to build each, and the green packs cost 6 seconds. If you have enough labs to drain the production of these setups, your bottleneck will be green science.

Marbles wrote:Great post! Very nice builds you have there, I have one point of criticism though, your red:green ratio is asymmetric, the red packs cost 5 seconds to build each, and the green packs cost 6 seconds. If you have enough labs to drain the production of these setups, your bottleneck will be green science.

Yes the asymmetry of red/green production is an issue (not even the amount of red only techs will make up) and not that easily solved. Personally I don't consider it a problem because the real issue is matching Green + Blue production (I don't mind over producing the cheapest item).

For every Green assembler you need 2 Blue assemblers, with the 3-3 pattern you would then need 6 blue assemblers to go for 3-3-6-1 science output, with the 4-4 pattern its 4-4-8-1 (For newer players, you only ever need 1 alien science pack factory, make it an assembler 3 with 4 productivity modules in it )

2-3-6-1 will under produce red packs, which is a really bad place to bottleneck on.

3-3-6-1 is the sweet spot as it requires 4 adv. circuit factories for optimum production, red packs will backup but as I stated they are the cheapest so not a massive amount of wastage. Alternatively you could throttle the red packs back by keeping some of them at assembler 1s, However assembler 1s are not as energy efficient as assembler 2s so that is also an issue.

Ultimately I think the asymmetry is not a big issue, and I definitely wouldn't scale greens up to match red, if you consider it a problem I would advise scaling reds down to match green.