Factorio Forums

Hello, I'm new at this game.
Will feeding a 48-furnace setup making steel a 48-furnace setup making iron output 1/5th of the belt type? Or should I feed a steel-making furnace an iron-making furnace directly?

I would do the latter.

The beauty of this game is that you can build things however you want.

If you want to have five belts of iron plates feeding smelters to output one belt of steel, go for it.
If you want to have five belts of iron ore feeding five doubled-up smelting columns, that makes the iron plates then directly inserts the iron plates into the furnaces making steel, each column outputting 1/5 a belt of steel, combining them all into a belt of steel, go for it.

Personally, I have a blueprint for a smelting column that works universally - input coal (or other burnable fuel) on one side, and a belt of ore (or stone) at the top, and out the bottom comes a full belt of plates (or a half belt of stone brick). I have one that is a bit wider than that which functions similarly, except while it takes iron ore at the top, it outputs 1/5 a belt of steel at the bottom, because I take the iron plate from the one furnace and put it into the furnace that makes steel. This works well because of the craft time - 3.2 seconds per iron plate, times 5 plates, is 16 seconds, the same time it takes to craft that one steel plate. So one furnace making iron plate will perfectly supply one furnace making steel plate.

I like to have furnaces 1:1, but things get a little weird once you have productivity modules: If you get 1.2x the iron plates from iron, you're overfeeding the steel furnaces. Time ratio is 16 seconds for steel and 5 * 3.2 * (1 / 1.2) = 13.33 seconds for 5 plates, or an extra 1 iron plate for every steel made (neat the numbers work out that way).

Honestly I just overbuild. Always need more. Belts not fast enough? Use better. Best belts? more lanes. Can't fit more belts or get things in/out fast enough? Time to make another smeltery (foundry, but smeltery sounds cooler).

I prefer sequence of identical setups for ore->iron and iron->steel.

Honktown wrote: Thu Feb 27, 2020 11:36 pm I like to have furnaces 1:1, but things get a little weird once you have productivity modules: If you get 1.2x the iron plates from iron, you're overfeeding the steel furnaces. Time ratio is 16 seconds for steel and 5 * 3.2 * (1 / 1.2) = 13.33 seconds for 5 plates, or an extra 1 iron plate for every steel made (neat the numbers work out that way).

Honestly I just overbuild. Always need more. Belts not fast enough? Use better. Best belts? more lanes. Can't fit more belts or get things in/out fast enough? Time to make another smeltery (foundry, but smeltery sounds cooler).

Once I start using Electric Furnaces and modules/beacons, I’ll redesign things anyway. I was referring to the Stone/Steel Furnace smelting columns with that post. Sorry if that was not clear!

astroshak wrote: Fri Feb 28, 2020 11:08 am

Honktown wrote: Thu Feb 27, 2020 11:36 pm I like to have furnaces 1:1, but things get a little weird once you have productivity modules: If you get 1.2x the iron plates from iron, you're overfeeding the steel furnaces. Time ratio is 16 seconds for steel and 5 * 3.2 * (1 / 1.2) = 13.33 seconds for 5 plates, or an extra 1 iron plate for every steel made (neat the numbers work out that way).

Honestly I just overbuild. Always need more. Belts not fast enough? Use better. Best belts? more lanes. Can't fit more belts or get things in/out fast enough? Time to make another smeltery (foundry, but smeltery sounds cooler).

Once I start using Electric Furnaces and modules/beacons, I’ll redesign things anyway. I was referring to the Stone/Steel Furnace smelting columns with that post. Sorry if that was not clear!

Now the 48 makes sense. Don't be afraid to get creative, sure it might not be pretty but who says "one belt" has to be one belt?

For the initial steel setup I'll also build a steel furnace line that makes the iron at the same time. With modules I'll make it it's own line, but that's far down the line.