aluminium ingot problem about silica

[ho84]

i am over 200 hrs in (including epic account), and this is the first time i deal with Aluminium seriously. i feel sorry about that

but i found the silica is lack behind during production of Aluminium ingot( i mean they not not self sustainable by just using the silica from alumina solution).
so it not difficult, i just have to import silica from silicon, but is that a way that i can prioritize the use of 'silica from alumina' so that the silica from silicone will not clogging the production output of alumina?
Is that a way to do it-> if the silica from alumina is not enough-> use the silica from silicone
if the silica from alumina is enough -> not silica should enter the container

thank you

[cywizz]

Yes, my suggestion would be to setup a dedicated factory for silica to match that of your alu ingot consumption.

Another option is to look at alternate recipes...there is one called Pure Alu Ingot which only uses scrap.
For Alu Solution, there is one called Sloppy Alumina. These 2 give you another way to not worry much about by products.

[ho84]

thanks so there is not way to do it logically by smart splitter or something?
as in factorio you can just merge belt in diffferent ways to achieve this

[cywizz]

You can use mergers and splitters, yes. A normal splitter will take a tier 3 belt and split it into 90 each, for example. But there is no way to precisely take 300 to left belt and 100 to right belt, etc...not even with smart or programmable splitters.

[Maehlice]

There are a couple ways to address this.

As others have said, there is no "priority" input/output options.

But, if you know exactly how much additional silica is needed, you can use a balancer/divider to separate out exactly how much you need and send only that amount into the system.

You could also just merge the two silica feeds without regard to throughput and use an overflow (smart) splitter and SINK on the by-product side to ensure it never backs up.

[The Big Brzezinski]

Just do the math. Figure out how much additional silica you need and only produce that much.

[Vectorspace]

It should balance with basic recipes.

making 120/m Alumina solution, also makes 50/m silica
*2
240/m Alumina comes with 100/m silica

240/m Alumina makes 360/m scrap
So 360/m scrap comes with 100/m silica

90/m scrap + 75/m silica makes 60/m aluminium ingot
*4
360/m scrap + 300/m silica makes 240/m aluminium ingot
and as previously said
So 360/m scrap comes with 100/m silica

so you need 300 silica total, of which you are making 100 already.
Crucially, the silica you are producing is less than half of what you require. This means it should work easily.

Mergers auto balance, in that they take evenly from all input belts.
If there are two input belts, it will take 1 unit from input A, then 1 from input B, etc.
Now say input A is proving less than B, and less than 50% of the demand. The merger will take everything from A, and the rest from B.

E.g. your demand is 300, and you have a merger input supplying 100 and another input supplying more. The merger will take all 100, and up to 200 from the other input.

tl:dr; Put your byproduct silica into one merger input. Put your external silica supply into another input. Leave the third input empty. Connect the output to your aluminium ingot silica demand. And it should work, and take all the byproduct silica and it shouldn't back up.

(as long as you are only making aluminium ingots, and not taking some of the alumina solution elsewhere for something else)

And of course, you can just dump excess silica into an AWESOME Sink

[Fabiaville]

personally never bothered untill i had all the alternates for alumina production so i could cut out the sillica annoyance.

[NoClicksOnMe]

Not the best solution but probably the easiest is to use a Merger. Use a higher tier belt for output to Aluminium ingot and a higher tier belt for input from alumina solution, use a lower tier belt for input from silica from silicone.

Example: Merger with T5 Belt Output to Aluminum Ingot, T5 Belt Input from Alumina Solution Silica, T2 Belt from Imported Silica.

If you are only worried about silica backing up into the refinery you can add a smart splitter on the alumina solution silica with overflow going to an awesome sink.

[ho84]

Thanks everyone, i refused to use sink in that way, as to me its wastage of electricity. The sink is actually quite energy consuming