* See example usages [http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1808 in this thread].
* See example usages [http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=18&t=1808 in this thread].
* [[Splitters/Weighted splitters]]: Use splitter to achive special ratios on the outputs
* [[Splitters/Weighted splitters]]: Use splitter to achive special ratios on the outputs [[File:Factorio ratios.jpg|thumb|256px|[[Splitters/Weighted splitters]]]]
** [[Splitters/Cascading]]: Use Cascading to fill storages only, when not needed otherwise
** [[Splitters/Cascading]]: Use Cascading to fill storages only, when not needed otherwise
* [[Splitters/Lane contributor]]: use the two lanes of a belt.
* [[Splitters/Lane contributor]]: use the two lanes of a belt.
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.
So, cause of the alpha-state of the game, we can currently only recommend to read this helpful tips and tricks!
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.
JoiningFile:T&T Belt04.jpgFeeding from side is only a good use, if you want to make a queue - e. g. for mines, some output-bufferFile:T&T Belt03.jpgBetter: 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: right input is only taken to fill gaps in the left input.
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.
