Foundry

Foundry

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Recipe
10 + 30 + 20 + 20 + 50 + 50 → 1
Total raw
10 + 30 + 20 + 20 + 50 + 50
Map color
Health	350 455 560 665 875
Stack size	20
Rocket capacity	5
Dimensions	5×5
Energy consumption	2500 kW (electric)
Drain	83.33 kW (electric)
Crafting speed	4 5.2 6.4 7.6 10
Mining time	0.2
Base productivity	50%
Pollution	6/m
Crafted only on
Module slots	4 slots
Prototype type	assembling-machine
Internal name	foundry
Required technologies
Produced by

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Space Age expansion exclusive feature.

The Foundry is a version of the assembling machine from Vulcanus that specializes in metallurgy. It has a built-in 50% productivity bonus.

The foundry can only be crafted on Vulcanus due to its higher atmospheric pressure, but it can be used on other planets once transported via space platform.

Recipes

The Foundry has twenty available unique recipes, of which one must be set before it can begin processing.

Recipe	Ingredients	Products	Technology required
Molten iron from lava	16 1 500	10 250	-
Molten copper from lava	16 1 500	15 250	-
Molten iron	32 50 1	500	-
Molten copper	32 50 1	500	-
Casting iron	3.2 20	2	-
Casting copper	3.2 20	2	-
Casting steel	3.2 30	1	-
Casting iron gear wheel	1 10	1	-
Casting iron stick	1 20	4	-
Casting low density structure	15 5 80 250	1	-
Concrete from molten iron	10 5 20 100	10	-
Casting copper cable	1 5	2	-
Casting pipe	1 10	1	-
Casting pipe to ground	1 10 50	2	-
Tungsten plate	10 4 10	1	Tungsten steel (research)
Metallurgic science pack	10 3 2 200	1	Metallurgic science pack (research)
Big mining drill	30 10 10 20 1 200	1	Big mining drill (research)
Turbo transport belt	0.5 5 1 20	1	Turbo transport belt (research)
Turbo underground belt	2 40 2 40	2	Turbo transport belt (research)
Turbo splitter	2 2 15 2 80	1	Turbo transport belt (research)

Note that the foundry recipe for making concrete can benefit from productivity modules, despite the regular concrete recipe not being able to use them.

Additionally, the foundry can also make other foundries, all belt types, and holmium plates, all of which use the same recipes as assembling machines.

Efficiency

Most of the foundry's recipes are more efficient than creating the same items in a furnace or assembling machine. However, because of the built-in +50% productivity bonus (which applies even to items like belts that don't benefit from productivity modules), and because the same bonus also applies to the recipes for molten iron and molten copper, the actual efficiency gains from using a foundry are much higher than the value listed in the recipe.

The table below compares the values of the base recipes (with 1 ore = 10 molten metal), and then shows the actual output of the recipe with the default foundry bonuses of 4 crafting speed and 150% productivity (1 ore = 15 molten metal). For example, inserting 200 iron ore into a foundry with no modules installed would result in 3,000 molten iron which could be turned into 450 iron plates.

Name	Base recipe values										With foundry bonuses
	Furnace/Assembler				Foundry				Efficiency		Foundry		Efficiency
	Time			Output	Time			Output			Time	Output
Iron plate	3.2	1	-	1	3.2	20	-	2	100%	-	0.8	3	225%	-
Steel plate	3.2	5	-	1	3.2	30	-	1	167%	-	0.8	1.5	375%	-
Iron gear wheel	0.5	2	-	1	1	10	-	1	200%	-	0.25	1.5	450%	-
Iron stick	0.5	1	-	2	1	20	-	4	100%	-	0.25	6	225%	-
Concrete	10	1	-	10	10	20	-	10	50%	-	2.5	15	113%	-
Pipe	0.5	1	-	1	1	10	-	1	100%	-	0.25	1.5	225%	-
Pipe to ground	0.5	5	-	2	1	50	-	2	100%	-	0.25	3	225%	-
Low density structure	15	10	20	1	15	80	250	1	125%	80%	3.75	1.5	281%	180%
Copper plate	3.2	-	1	1	3.2	-	20	2	-	100%	0.8	3	-	225%
Copper cable	0.5	-	1	2	1	-	5	2	-	200%	0.25	3	-	450%

Alternate recipe chains

Because the foundry can cast iron, steel, and copper plates but can also directly cast various items normally made from those plates, there exist alternate production chains, where the foundry is used to cast the plates and then another production building is used to create the final product:

• Steel can be produced by casting iron plates and refining them in an electric furnace
• Gears, iron sticks, pipes, and pipes-to-ground can be smelting by casting iron plates and feeding them to an assembler
• Copper wire can be produced by casting copper plates and feeding them to an assembler or an electromagnetic plant
• LDS can be produced by casting copper plates and steel plates (or, as mentioned above, casting iron plates and converting them to steel in a furnace) and feeding them to an assembler

These alternate production chains can potentially be more resource-efficient than just casting the result directly, albeit at the cost of considerably more machines (and in some cases more high-level, high-quality modules) for a given rate of output. In this case, the inherent +50% productivity bonus of the foundry does not matter, nor do any productivity modules the foundry has, because those bonuses also apply when casting the metal plates. Instead, the decision is between any productivity bonus the second production machine can provide verses the fact that most of the 'Casting' recipes cost less to begin with. (This inherent advantage is the value listed in the 'Efficiency' column under 'Base recipe values' in the above table.)

Steel plates

Initially, it seems like the electric furnace, with just 2 module slots, cannot make up for the 67% inherent efficiency boost from the cast-steel recipe. However, steel production also has an infinite research which adds a productivity bonus; while this bonus applies to both casting steel and smelting steel (and doesn't apply to casting iron plates in order to smelt them into steel), the 50% inherent productivity and more module slots of the foundry give it a higher bonus to start with, meaning that the same absolute bonus makes for a larger relative increase in the electric furnace. (For example, with no productivity modules, researching 5 levels of the technology will take the foundry from 150% productivity to 200% productivity, boosting its output by a third, while the furnace will go from 100% productivity to 150% productivity, boosting its output by a half.) With the right combination of high-quality productivity module 3s and steel plate productivity research, it is possible to make the electric furnace production chain more efficient.

For example, a foundry with 4 legendary productivity module 3s (+25% productivity each) casting iron plates feeding an electric furnace with 2 legendary productivity module 3s and a +50% steel plate productivity has exactly the same overall efficiency as a foundry with 4 legendary productivity module 3s and the same +50% steel plate productivity casting steel plates directly, with both producing exactly 1 steel plate per 10 units of molten iron. Any additional research past that point will make the electric furnace production chain strictly better. If using mere rare productivity module 3s (+16% productivity each) instead, the changeover happens somewhere between +150% and +160% research.

Additionally, with enough levels of steel plate productivity research, it is possible to reach the hard cap of 400% efficiency. Thus the absolute maximum efficiency possible for casting steel is 4/3 steel plates per 10 units of molten iron, while the electric furnace production chain can reach 2 steel plates per 10 units of molten iron.

Iron gear wheels

It is never possible for gears made in an assembler to be more efficient than those made by casting them directly. The cast gears recipe is twice as efficient as the normal one and no productivity research applies; the highest efficiency possible from an assembler, 200% from an assembler 3 with 4 legendary productivity module 3s, is only just enough to break even.

Iron sticks

Conversely, the cast iron stick recipe has no inherent resource efficiency at all, thus casting iron plates and then converting them to sticks using an assembler with any productivity modules at all is more efficient than using that same foundry to cast them directly.

Pipes & Pipes-to-ground

Unlike all the other items with alternate production chains here, pipes and pipes-to-ground are not intermediate products. Thus it is not possible to use productivity modules on foundries or assemblers which are producing them. Since it is possible to use productivity modules on a foundry casting iron plates which are then converted to pipes in an assembler, doing so is more efficient than casting them directly.

Copper cables

Much like iron gears, copper cables have a 200% efficient casting recipe and no researchable productivity bonus, thus it is not possible to produce them more efficiently using an assembler. However, copper cables can also be produced in the electromagnetic plant, which has 5 module slots and an inherent +50% productivity boost of its own. So long as the EM plant's total productivity is greater than 100%, this production chain is more efficient than casting directly. 5 productivity 3s of common quality (+10% productivity each) will give a total productivity of exactly 100%; any better quality modules, or productivity 2s of epic quality or better, will make them more efficient.

Low density structure

LDS are notable because the crafting recipe has an efficiency of less than 100% with respect to copper, and while its efficiency with respect to iron is greater than 100%, it is less than the inherent efficiency of casting steel plates. Thus, even with no efficiency modules or productivity research at all, casting the plates and then creating the LDS in an assembler is more efficient. However, LDS also require plastic, and since plastic bars cannot be cast, you are losing out on the inherent +50% productivity bonus the foundry offers:

Process	Raw resources to make 1
Furnaces + Assemblers	10 20 5
Foundry Direct	3.5 11.1 3.33
Foundries + Assemblers	2.67 8.88 5

Note that making LDS is subject to its own productivity research, and both that, and the use of productivity modules of any kind, will make the use of the alternate production chain more attractive: the efficiency gain for iron and copper will increase, while the efficiency loss in plastic, while not entirely negated, will shrink. For example, with no efficiency boosts, the alternative production chain is 33% more efficient in iron, 25% more efficient in copper, and 33% less efficient in plastic, but with +100% productivity from research, the alternative production chain is 60% more efficient in iron, 50% more efficient in copper, and only 20% less efficient in plastic.

Additionally, the hard cap of 300% productivity applies here, too, and this can entirely negate the penalty to plastic, though the level of research required to do do is considerable.

The LDS casting recipe does have one advantage: Quality. Because the only solid input is plastic, all it takes to make LDS of a particular quality is to have plastic of that quality.

Furthermore, since LDS can be recycled back to copper and steel plates, one can use this recipe to generate high quality copper and steel plates from plastic, consuming less molten metal than many other means of producing quality plates. Additionally, if the Foundry can get to the 300% LDS productivity cap (via modules and research), then the plastic will (on average) be completely regenerated, allowing a small amount of quality plastic to produce arbitrary amounts of quality copper and steel plates, given sufficient molten metal.

History

• 2.0.7:
  • Introduced in Space Age expansion.

See also

• Vulcanus
• Crafting