Splitters

Splitters can be used to split or join belts, but have many other not so obvious usages.

This is somehow reflected in the repeating threads (some example) which are started by newbies to this game. So much is said: in most cases, there is no need for that.

Types

Type	Speed (tiles per Game-second)
File:Basic-splitter.png Splitter	1.875
File:Fast-splitter.png Fast Splitter	3.750
File:Express-splitter.png Express Splitter	5.625

Basic

Task: Make a branch in the middle of a longer belt to deliver other parts of your factory.

• remove a belt-segment in this long belt.
• select a splitter, rotate it into the right direction and place it into the gap.
• the items continue to flow on the old belt, but you can now begin to built another belt from the second output of the splitter.
• when you finish and the belts are not jammed, then you can see that every second incoming item is output on the new belt.

Advanced

Main article: Belt transport system

The behavior of splitters looks simple at first glance. But they are not that simple. Splitters have an astonishing amount of uses.

• splitters have two input-belt-sides and two output-belt-sides on which you can connect any belt or underground belt
• splitters don't shuffle the lanes on the belts; items on the left input belt lane don't change the side to the right lane (and vice versa).
• Splitting
  • if two output-belts are connected, then every input-item is put alternated on one of the two output-belts. Or in other words: it is guaranteed, that the inputed items are output in a ratio of 50% on each belt.
  • if one of the output belt lanes are full, then it tries to output on the other output belt. This is useful to fill belts.
  • a lot more details about the exact splitting can be found here http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=3765 and here http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=511&p=3019 !
• Joining
  File:T&T Belt04.jpg

  Feeding from side is only a good use, if you want to make a queue - e. g. for mines, some output-buffer
  File:T&T Belt03.jpg

  Better: The capacity of the output belt is fully used.
  • splitters can be used to join two belts into one. This has a much higher throughput than only side-inserting.
  • as with splitting, the belt lanes aren't mixed up.
  • Use faster splitter if you want to feed into a faster belt, because otherwise your splitter is the bottleneck!

Expert

Special behavior

• Splitters/Priority: splitter prefers one side for joining in most cases.
• Splitters/When is a faster splitter needed?: a basic splitter can keep up with the input of one fast belt, if the two output belts are connected and empty.

Other Usages

• See example usages in this thread.
• Splitters/Weighted splitters: Use splitter to achive special ratios on the outputs
  File:Factorio ratios.jpg

  Splitters/Weighted splitters
  • Splitters/Cascading: Use Cascading to fill storages only, when not needed otherwise
• Splitters/Balancer: use the two lanes of a belt.
• Splitters/Joining: more explained
• Splitters/Wormhole Trick: an empty splitter transports items faster, they disappears on input side and dive up on output side, "jumping" over about half a tile. It is questionable, how this behavior could be used. A good usage is to make something like a "micro-buffer", or a "spread-buffer" with that, because a line of 10 splitters can store about 60 items - a half stack - and the first items are delivered very fast, but the last items have the normal belt speed to move through the splitters; so the items are spread on the belts. See also Splitters as the bus - The Splitter Bus
• Splitters/Constructions: Examples of using.

Mods

Belt Lane Splitter

See also

• Transport network
  • Transport belts
  • Underground belts
• Crafting network