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Blue belt beaconed electric furnace setup

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 3:30 pm
by Lukas
This is my first creation. This is a setup that I create that uses a total of 24 electric furnaces, with Productivity 3 Modules, and 56 beacons full with Speed 3 Modules. This can fill a Express Belt.
Blueprint


Feedback is welcome!

Re: Blue belt beaconed electric furnace setup

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2019 4:53 pm
by Serenity
This works, but it is pretty inefficient. Even with this design you can eliminate the double row of beacons in the middle and replace it by a single one

Generally it is better to space the beacons as far apart from the furnaces as possible. That leaves two tiles between the furnace and the beacon. Enough for a belt and an inserter. That cuts the required number of furnaces almost in half because you can have more beacons per furnace. With 8 beacons per furnace it's 13 furnaces for a blue belt of iron or copper.
Though it's necessary to use some tricks to always achieve reliable compression (for example sideloading)

Re: Blue belt beaconed electric furnace setup

Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2019 4:04 am
by Durentis
You've got the right idea with the modules and putting the furnaces between rows of beacons, you just need to iterate on it to compress the design.

Some tips:
  • Show a screenshot when you post a design so people don't have to load Factorio and import a blueprint to see it.
  • Overlap beacon rows whenever possible to save power and modules.
  • Avoid long-handed inserters in beacon builds whenever possible. Prefer stack/fast inserters that can keep up with your input/output.
  • Run belts between the beacon rows and the furnace/assembler/etc. (You can have up to two spaces on both sides if necessary.)
  • Use underground belts where necessary to compress the design.
  • Plan designs for tiling. You should be able to drop them side by side accounting for overlap where possible, with input/output on the end(s).
Don't look at this if you want to try compressing your design on your own because you can't un-see it, but I use this smelter or one near enough like it. Compressed Blue Belt Electric Smelter.