"Alclad Aluminum / Sheet Aluminum Casing" Ratio

[Master]

Hello,

I'm setting up an aluminum production and I don't know how to balance the ration between Alclad Aluminum Sheet and Aluminum Casing.

1:1? 2:1? 1:2? 1.5:2?

I'm looking for suggestions from those who have already unlocked everything and understand what's more important than what between the two aluminum-based products.

Thank you!

[Grandaddypurple]

Best suggestion I can give when planning aluminum is start by setting your self a goal (example: I want to produce X supercomputer or Y batteries per minute) and see how many alclad sheet and aluminum casings are required to accomplish that goal. Otherwise you'll be setting huge things up and realize later that you're short of, say, casings and you'll have to start over

[Master]

That's my concern, indeed! At the moment I produce 1840 aluminum ingots/min but I don't know how to split them. From what I understand looking the recipes, casings are more commonly used, on the other hand I read plenty of threads online where people remark the necessity for large quantities of heatsinks (that require sheets). This is why I'm conflicted.

[Maehlice]

All. None. Just start building factories that use whichever and expand as you go. Cross those bridges when you get there.

[Master]

I don't want to make my factory look like a mess: I'm planning everything sector by sector, therefore I need to have an idea of what is an ideal ratio.

[lpnlizard27]

There is no ideal ratio.

You either make stuff just to make stuff.

Or you need a set amount of something to run a process.

My battery production site makes casings on site and doesn't bother my main production line.

My main aluminum line is set up to either produce alclad sheets at 100% or casings at 100%. That's 200% the actual production because both lines are not in use all the time. Once they fill up their given storage the line shuts down and the other can operate at 100%

The rate i need to take parts from my main line is rather minimal. The way you should be planning is to have most of the processing possible done on site.

[Maehlice]

You should probably do then what grandaddypurple recommends -- start with the end products and work your way backwards.

If you go my way, you can always build modularly. You don't have to have a spaghetti base. Build one floor capable of processing 60 ingots per minute making casings. Do the same for sheets. As you need more, just expand vertically copying the same floor.

[Master]

Thank you

[Schalimah]

Aluminium shhets are only used for batteries and heat sinks, both of which have an alternate with casings instead.
For the sake of simplicity i opted to only produce sheets for construction (belts and dron infrastructure).
Everything automatred uses casings for me.

[nfgman]

Casings are a relatively simple and compactly manufactured component in recipes for both radio control "systems" and fused frames. Also used in construction of blenders.

Before upgrade 4, I had many alcad sheet assemblers feeding several heat sink assemblers, which in turn supplied radio control units and turbomotors. The latter recipes changed and I ended up with just 2 alcad sheet assemblers supplying storage for mk5 belt construction and an empty parking lot. Later, I made a heat sink factory just to use up some aluminum and for future plutonium.

Heat sinks are required for cooling systems in the standard recipe but there are alternates for both. Since both cooling systems and fused frames require nitrogen and aluminum,, they're made in the same factory. I have 6 blenders making cooling systems and 3 blenders making fused frames. They both take close to the same amount of aluminum ingots despite the significant difference in processing (4 constructos vs 20 assemblers, not including copper sheet production). Fused frames are components in mk3 miners and pressure frames for nuclear pasta.

[Vectorspace]

Sheets are also used for mk5 belts.

I'm working on this right now. I have just expanded my aluminium factory, and am planning a heat sink, cooling system, and flexible frame factory, all using casings from my aluminium factory.

My aluminium factory will "underproduce" slightly. That is, it has assemblers to produce x sheets and y casings, but will not be capable of making enough aluminium ingots for that. The new factory requires the max y casings, but at startup the aluminium factory will only be producing, say, 80% of x sheets and 80% of y casings. (I don't actually know the percentage)

The idea is the sheets are feeding a container for use making belts, and once that fills up the x sheets production will back up and stop, allowing the y casings production to jump to 100%.

Ultimately I figure that most of my production lines ultimately fill up storage at the end of the line and stop, so it can be efficient for two lines to overuse a single source on the understanding that ultimately both lines will not be running in full at once. When line a fills up, line b speeds up