Factorio Forums

How do I automate the emptying of furnaces?

With an inserter of some sort, generally standard or long, depending on how the belts are laid out.

Oh... I had assumed from reading the wiki and the devices name that it inserted only, not extracted.

Depends on standpoint... it inserts onto the belts then.

The name IS confusing. I often call them outserters as well as inserters.

There should be a new name for them...
"Movers"
Nah that sounds weird.

FishSandwich wrote:The name IS confusing. I often call them outserters as well as inserters.

It must be something, which is simpler and more explicit than inserter.


Sometimes it's good to go back to the roots:

http://www.translate-latin.com/en/dicti ... latin/move

I would say the right word is "incedo". But "insedo" <-> "inserter" ... see it?

What do you think of simply: "robotic arm"

BurnHard wrote:What do you think of simply: "robotic arm"

And here I was going to suggest "Thing what picks stuff up and moves it" but "robotic arm" is good I guess.

this is one way of doing it.

Translocator.

Macguffin.

Picker-upper.

Doohickey.

Radial Electrodynamic Transport/Repository InterExchange Velocity Adjustment Lever. (RETRIEVAL for short. hue.)

robhol wrote:Translocator.

Macguffin.

Picker-upper.

Doohickey.

Radial Electrodynamic Transport/Repository InterExchange Velocity Adjustment Lever. (RETRIEVAL for short. hue.)

Sir! make a mod with thouse names, and i'll use it fore sure

Droa wrote:this is one way of doing it.

Sorry, but it's a small peeve of mine. There is NO reason to use anything other than standard (yellow) or Long-arm inserters for smelting processes. Smelters operate at sufficiently low frequency that these are sufficient to input/output effectively. In fact, there are a lot of low-throughput processes (1 item/sec or less) where a yellow is just fine (like labs). On top of that, every smelter will back-log a full stack of metal (unlike non-standalone factories that stop at 2 runs)

Zourin wrote:

Droa wrote:this is one way of doing it.

Sorry, but it's a small peeve of mine. There is NO reason to use anything other than standard (yellow) or Long-arm inserters for smelting processes. Smelters operate at sufficiently low frequency that these are sufficient to input/output effectively. In fact, there are a lot of low-throughput processes (1 item/sec or less) where a yellow is just fine (like labs). On top of that, every smelter will back-log a full stack of metal (unlike non-standalone factories that stop at 2 runs)

thats true, unless you have a beacon nearby, then you need faster arms

just tested your theory.. its not true.. my production whent down, when i used yellow arms

There has to be a common industry standard name for it. A lot of factories use these robotic arms. Maybe it IS just "robotic arm".

ssilk wrote:

FishSandwich wrote:The name IS confusing. I often call them outserters as well as inserters.

It must be something, which is simpler and more explicit than inserter.


Sometimes it's good to go back to the roots:

http://www.translate-latin.com/en/dicti ... latin/move

I would say the right word is "incedo". But "insedo" <-> "inserter" ... see it?

Hmm, actually "move to and fro" which is "flos" on Latin, is almost a perfect description of an inserter. But I understand it's difficult to name something based on what it does, so maybe a better description of what inserters do in the tooltip would be good?

They really look like an Industrial Robot, but are not programable (ignore the Smart Industrial Robot) and do nothing more than moving items.

I'd say keep the name and add a descriptive tooltip like FishSandwich suggested

Zourin wrote:On top of that, every smelter will back-log a full stack of metal (unlike non-standalone factories that stop at 2 runs)

The yellow arms need one second for a full circle, don't they? Because that's one reason to use the blue ones in this case. If you got a full stack back-logged, you won't be able to put it out of the furnaces until your ore runs out. But i also tried around a bit with a "puffer belt" - a second belt parallel to the main belt running along the furnaces where i put some metal on with a red arm. That's especially useful if you got lots of furnaces in a row; but i try to streamline my smelting setup a bit here. In a good one, i think i don't need a second belt. Could be useful for some extra output after your production (and thus your need for iron and copper bars) went down for a bit.

Generally you are right though. I try to adjust myself to using the best inserter for the specific situation, which generally means the decision between blue or yellow (the use of the others are a no-brainer). Especially when you got more than a thousand inserters, that could mean a few less turbines In my last game, my blue inserters used around 2,5MW of power constantly...

GewaltSam wrote:

Zourin wrote:Generally you are right though. I try to adjust myself to use the best inserter for the specific situation, which generally means blue or yellow (the use of the others are a no-brainer). Especially when you got more than a thousand inserters, that could mean a few less turbines In my last game, my blue inserters used up around 2,5MW of power constantly...

I'm relatively new to the game(just bought it last Friday although I've played 50hours in 4days..lol)) & I've just upgraded all my furnaces to using blues in & out. What a great little speed increase and am now kicking myself that I didn't do it sooner. worth the extra power but i'll need to keep an eye on it.

Ric wrote:

GewaltSam wrote:

Zourin wrote:Generally you are right though. I try to adjust myself to use the best inserter for the specific situation, which generally means blue or yellow (the use of the others are a no-brainer). Especially when you got more than a thousand inserters, that could mean a few less turbines In my last game, my blue inserters used up around 2,5MW of power constantly...

I'm relatively new to the game(just bought it last Friday although I've played 50hours in 4days..lol)) & I've just upgraded all my furnaces to using blues in & out. What a great little speed increase and am now kicking myself that I didn't do it sooner. worth the extra power but i'll need to keep an eye on it.

Generally, that's just the case when you got some kind of boost, or your furnaces had some overproduction while the belt was full (it's also useful on the furnaces farther down the belt, to put some bars on the belt when they get the chance; the yellows perform bad in that situation).

But, see, if i am not completely wrong your yellow arms got a speed of 1, and your furnaces got a smelting speed of 1. So, technically, you won't get more speed out of your furnaces with blue arms. There are some special cases though, like the ones i mentioned.


Welcome to Factorio btw I myself play like a week longer than you, but i know what you mean. I stopped playing anything else since