Balancer mechanics

Balancers are used to evenly distribute items over multiple belts or multiple belt lanes. Belt balancers are usually used to even out production by placing them in front of large machine arrays with mutiple input belts. They are also usually used to balance mutiple belts before or after train stations. Lane balancers are usually placed after production to ensure that a belt is fully compressed or before consumption to ensure that both lanes of the belt are evenly drained.

Lane Balancers

Input Unbalanced, Output Balanced

These balancers evenly distribute the items onto the output lanes but do not "pull" evenly from the input lanes when the output is backed up. They are input unbalanced. The last two balancers are a special case, they only work when there are items on only one side of the input belt.

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• File:Corner-lane balancer.png
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• File:One lane-corner-lane balancer.png

Input and Output Balanced

These balancers evenly distribute the items onto the output lanes and "pull" evenly from the input lanes when the output is backed up. They are input and output balanced.

• 1 Belt
  1 Belt
• 2 Belts
  2 Belts
• 4 Belts v.1
  4 Belts v.1
• 4 Belts v.2
  4 Belts v.2

Belt Balancers

Theses belt balancers are all tested to be input balanced and output balanced. Throughput under full load and min throughput with all combinations is also tested, it is stated when that is under 100%. Tests are done using this handy tool by d4rkpl4y3r on the Factorio Forums. When there are mutiple versions of balancers that have the same stats but different sizes the balancer with the smallest footprint is shown.

1 belt to x belts

• 1 to 2
  1 to 2
• 1 to 3
  1 to 3
• 1 to 4
  1 to 4
• 1 to 5
  1 to 5
• 1 to 6
  1 to 6
• 1 to 7
  1 to 7
• 1 to 8
  1 to 8
• 1 to 16
  1 to 16

2 belts to x belts

• 2 to 1
  2 to 1
• 2 to 2
  2 to 2
• 2 to 3: Throughput can go down to 75%.
  2 to 3: Throughput can go down to 75%.
• 2 to 3: Throughput can go down to 75%.
  2 to 3: Throughput can go down to 75%.
• 2 to 4
  2 to 4
• 2 to 5: Throughput can go down to 50%.
  2 to 5: Throughput can go down to 50%.
• 2 to 5: Throughput can go down to 50%.
  2 to 5: Throughput can go down to 50%.
• 2 to 6: Throughput can go down to 50%.
  2 to 6: Throughput can go down to 50%.
• 2 to 7: Throughput can go down to 50%.
  2 to 7: Throughput can go down to 50%.
• 2 to 8: Throughput can go down to 50%.
  2 to 8: Throughput can go down to 50%.
• 2 to 16: Throughput can go down to 50%.
  2 to 16: Throughput can go down to 50%.

3 belts to x belts

• 3 to 1: Throughput can go down to 50%.
  3 to 1: Throughput can go down to 50%.
• 3 to 2: Throughput can go down to 75%.
  3 to 2: Throughput can go down to 75%.
• 3 to 3: Throughput can go down to 50%.
  3 to 3: Throughput can go down to 50%.
• 3 to 4: Throughput can go down to 83%.
  3 to 4: Throughput can go down to 83%.
• 3 to 5: Throughput can go down to 50%.
  3 to 5: Throughput can go down to 50%.
• 3 to 6: Throughput can go down to 50%.
  3 to 6: Throughput can go down to 50%.
• 3 to 7: Throughput can go down to 50%.
  3 to 7: Throughput can go down to 50%.
• 3 to 8: Throughput can go down to 50%.
  3 to 8: Throughput can go down to 50%.

4 belts to x belts

• 4 to 1
  4 to 1
• 4 to 2: Throughput can go down to 50%.
  4 to 2: Throughput can go down to 50%.
• 4 to 3: Throughput can go down to 83%.
  4 to 3: Throughput can go down to 83%.

References

• Command line belt balancer analyzer
• Blueprint String Mod
• Collection of lane balancers
• Collection of belt balancers, most of these contain a lot of unnecessary splitters
• Another collection of belt balancers, some of these are not input balanced
• Best collection of belt balancers, most of them are used here.