SF6 applications

[leadraven]

Hello, factorians!
I'm designing small mod to add Fluorine into game, with a healthy share of realism.
I found info about SF6 gas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur_hexafluoride) that is used as an insulator in high-voltage industry. I like this chemical interaction, but I don't know a damn thing about this theme, and even Wiki can't help me.
I'm sure here, in Factorio community, are a lot of people well educated in this area, and I hope they will help me by answering some questions.
First of all, does it all make any sense in Factorio? If yes, how to design usages of SF6? I see it as an ingredient for some "High voltage switch" ( Iron + Advanced circuit + SF6 ). Where this switch might be used? I think of :

• Substation, Power switch, Turbine
• Modules 3, Beacon
• Assembler 3
• Some top-tier personal equipment

How realistic is all this? Does SF6 has any other applications? Only 1 recipe isn't very cool.
Maybe mod with this gas already exists?
Thanks!

[bobingabout]

Unfortunately for your specific case, I can't offer any suggestions.

Basically, my process of doing anything in factorio is... first research the process on wikipedia, break it down into the basics like...
I want to add ferric chloride to make PCBs, the recipe for that chemical is... iron oxide + hydrogen chloride = ferric chloride. Do these items exist in the game? I added hydrogen chloride already, lets use iron ore for iron oxide. is there a factory in the game that can perform this process? Lets go with chemical plant. okay, that's done, moving on.

Sometimes, you look at a chemical process, like Lithium perchlorate, and your eyes just glaze over with the complexity of it. would it be fun? you're adding a chain of 3 or 4 chemical plants that for the most part just take the output of the previous stage, plus oxygen. would it be fun? not really. Byproducts? it's just the input again. What's the full recipe, when you remove the "get back what you put in" phase? basically lithium salt and oxygen. okay, lets just make that the recipe. I've done something like this on a few ocassions.

Look at the Nitrogen Dioxide for example. Originally, in the warfare mod (actually, I think I moved the start of the process to make Nitrogen Dioxide into metals chemicals and intermediates, but kept the second half to make nitroglycerine in the warfare mod) you just had Oxygen + Nitrogen = Nitrogen Dioxide. even though the process has Nitrogen + Oxygen => Nitrogen Monoxide, then Nitrogen Monoxide + Oxygen => Nitrogen Dioxide, but when I was working on a recipe later found that Nitrogen Monoxide was an ingredient, and split the process. This can still be seen in my mods. if you use bobplates only, you have the nitrogen + oxygen => nitrogen dioxide recipe. if you install bobrevamp on top, you have the nitrogen monoxide step added.

The big question is... Does it make sense to you? Does it make sense to the game? Does it seem reasonable? if you can answer yes, or at the least Maybe to all 3 of these, then go with it, even if it's a simplified process.

[leadraven]

The big question is... Does it make sense to you? Does it make sense to the game? Does it seem reasonable? if you can answer yes, or at the least Maybe to all 3 of these, then go with it, even if it's a simplified process.

I am not against simplifications. For example, I'm planning to simplify Aluminum production process to Stone + Fluorine + Coal.
But I know nearly nothing about "high-voltage equipment", and I don't want to invent some fantasy mumbo-jumbo.

[robot256]

Since it's used in high-voltage switchgear, anything that produces, transmits, or consumes a ton of power could conceivably include a switch or fuse containing SF6. If you set that threshold arbitrarily at about a megawatt, you get Steam Turbines, Assembler 3s, and Substations. Individual solar panels, steam engines, accumulators, and lower tier assemblers are unlikely to need it, and I don't think it makes sense to add it to machines that can draw that much only when beaconed. (Maybe include it in Beacons, just for added end-game cost? Maybe they have to help transmit the extra power?)

This would go great with a mod I've been thinking about. Make it so large power poles can only connect with two wires, and only to other large poles or substations. That forces every high-voltage line to be point-to-point between substations. Then make the substations have a limited transmission capacity (by using an internal accumulator buffer) and you can enforce capacity limits on transmission lines.