Smelting setup and belt over-saturation

[RED NOVA SUN]

Hello all,
Im running into a bit of an issue with my current smelting setup.
Each smelting line is 24 smelters long.
As you can see in the images (and this is where the problem is) i have two output lines however the closer to the end of the setup i get the more congested it gets to the point where there is no room for inserters to put iron plates.

Factorio 

A Screenshot of Factorio

By: RED NOVA SUN

Factorio 

A Screenshot of Factorio

By: RED NOVA SUN

Apart from shortening and creating a second smelting setup, is there another option?
(Also i need more iron lol)

[malogoss]

Those links lead to an error screen. Try again.

[malogoss]

Well, f that, I'll still try to answer anyway.

24 stone furnaces are enough to fill half a yellow belt with iron plates. So to saturate the belt, 24 stone furnaces each side. From what I read, you understand that already. Good.

The thing is, the whole belt has to be consumed downstream, else the plates on the belt eventually reach the end of the belt, start piling up and backing up all the way to smelting. Then some furnaces lack room on the belt to output, they start buffering plates up to 100 per furnace. Once that happened, even if you start consuming the whole belt by adding machines downstream, it takes forever for the furnaces to empty what they buffered. In fact the 24th furnace will never empty, because it will smelt fast enough to buffer back to 99-100 whenever it outputs a plate.

In casual play, the fact that the last furnace will hold 100 plates forever changes nothing. In fact, it's quite nice to ctrl click the last few furnaces and get those extra iron plates in inventory to handcraft stuff.

If your OCD gets triggered badly or if you're a speedrunner, then you want an overflow splitter, so whatever is not consumed by your production gets stored in a buffer. That buffer can be built to fill back the belt if ore gets thin at smelting. Or it can be used to feed another build later, or whatever other use you may have for it. The whole point is that it allowed your furnaces to never stop smelting.

[SiEgE]

Originally posted by RED NOVA SUN:

Hello all,
Im running into a bit of an issue with my current smelting setup.
Each smelting line is 24 smelters long.
As you can see in the images (and this is where the problem is) i have two output lines however the closer to the end of the setup i get the more congested it gets to the point where there is no room for inserters to put iron plates.

Factorio 

A Screenshot of Factorio

By: RED NOVA SUN

Factorio 

A Screenshot of Factorio

By: RED NOVA SUN

Apart from shortening and creating a second smelting setup, is there another option?
(Also i need more iron lol)

One yellow belt can feed 18 steel furnaces. One red belt can feed 2x as much.
1 electric furnace = 1 steel furnace = 2 stone furnaces.

Screenshots are not viewable => private account.

[malogoss]

Originally posted by SiEgE:

One yellow belt can feed 18 steel furnaces. One red belt can feed 2x as much.

Nope. A full yellow belt of iron ore feeds exactly 24 steel furnaces.
Or feeds exactly 48 stone furnaces.

15 ore per second, smelted at a rate of 1 every 3.2 sec in stone furnaces, do the math.

[RED NOVA SUN]

Hi guys thanks for your responses, please check again ive made my account public

[Zaflis]

Originally posted by RED NOVA SUN:

Hi guys thanks for your responses, please check again ive made my account public

Cannot view still.

The images should have the option to publish them, not about account settings.

The likely problem you have is that you are just not using the full belt of iron plates. You can increase the rate of your science production elsewhere? Are the iron plates taking pauses when they move on belt?

[SiEgE]

Originally posted by malogoss:

Originally posted by SiEgE:

One yellow belt can feed 18 steel furnaces. One red belt can feed 2x as much.

Nope. A full yellow belt of iron ore feeds exactly 24 steel furnaces.
Or feeds exactly 48 stone furnaces.

15 ore per second, smelted at a rate of 1 every 3.2 sec in stone furnaces, do the math.

I wouldn't say otherwise if that wasn't my experience I myself can't argue with. I wonder if I'm overlooking a lag some elements introduce.

This is how I have it:
1. Trainstation with 5 fast inserters per side, filling the red lane to the brim with ore.
2. Red lane splits in two yellow lanes.
3. Each yellow lane is processed by a grid of 2x9 steel furnaces. No ore makes it to the end of the yellow feeding lane. Red lane never stops.
4. Two output yellow lanes are "split" back together onto a red belt, creating an evenly filled iron plate feed.

Through several experiments, I ended up with 2x9 instead of 2x10(or 2x12, in your case), because the last few furnaces would always end up empty/with no ore to process.

Based on your point, it sounds to me that something slows down the ore feed. I'd gladly hear your suggestions.

[RED NOVA SUN]

Images should be viewable now

[knighttemplar1960]

Every thing looks fine. The likely issue is that you aren't yet using up the plate as fast as you can smelt it.

[Tydo]

same, can't see the problem.
In factorio you are almost always either not putting enough in or not taking enough out.
Only 2 thing to check for a subprocess:
is input saturated? (why / why not)
is output saturated? (why / why not)

Then there are 3 ways to go:
* provide more input
* expand production capacity (consuming more input)
* consume more output.
You just have to pick one. I'll post a pic of my smelter block later, not been active on factorio its really on pause for me until the big update.

[Tydo]

as promised, but I used electric furnaces.
2 x 24 smelters eating a red belt of ore, outputting a red belt of plates.
The ratio might fit exactly (I don't play by spreadsheet) but it is very close.

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198087290971/screenshot/2191624945414135156/

[MechBFP]

Use fast inserters so when a spot becomes available on the belt it can move fast enough to put an item there. That becomes less of a problem once you get the first stacking upgrade that adds a +1 to the yellow insterter, but it still could be an issue when you are right at the limit of the belt capacity.

[Zaflis]

Ok the pictures show. You don't have full belt of ore coming in, neither is the belt full coming out of iron, copper or steel smelting. You have top area of steel smelting still building ghosts. The furnaces and inserters don't actually exist there yet, only the input belt.

[malogoss]

Originally posted by SiEgE:

Through several experiments, I ended up with 2x9 instead of 2x10(or 2x12, in your case), because the last few furnaces would always end up empty/with no ore to process.

Based on your point, it sounds to me that something slows down the ore feed. I'd gladly hear your suggestions.

It could be many things, I won't start making a list of random hypothesis.
If I jumped in your game I'd find the issue in a minute.
I'm serious, send a friend request, i'll enter your game, find the issue, leave, unfriend and that will be the end of the story.

But do the math. An iron plate is made in 3.2 sec, from the in game tooltip.
Steel furnaces are twice as fast, so 1.6 sec per plate.
So you need "1.6 steel furnaces" to smelt 1 ore per second.
A red belt has a throughput of 30/sec.
30 x 1.6 = 48

I'm serious, send a friend request.

[malogoss]

Hey OP, I think what you are pointing at is the steel making. The iron plates you mention are the INPUT. Those iron plates will stay there forever unless you actually build the furnaces and inserters. That north portion is all ghosts items!

xD