Transport belts
< Transport network
Transport belts (Conveyor belts) are used to transport Items. They don't need energy to do that, and this is one of the Mysteries of the Factorio World, but like any other mystery in Factorio this has just gameplay-reasons.
Items
| belt-type | factor speed | speed (tiles/sec) | needed research |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
1 | 1.875 | none |
| |
2 | 3.75 | Logistics 2 |
| |
3 | 5.625 | Logistics 3 |
Related: Splitters, Underground belts Nearby: Inserters, Storages, Transport belts/Physics
Basic
Task: make a steady flow of items from your Mining drills to the Furnaces.
- Select a belt by taking a Storages/Stack from your Inventory
- rotate the belt by pressing "R", until the right direction is reached
- place the belt (by default right mouse)
- keep pressing right mouse and move into the belts directon: the build continues
Advanced
Behavior
Technically the only difference of the belt-types is the speed (and color), in practical usage there are some differences in density, awaited throughput and handling in conjunction with inserters. See Transport belts/Physics to dig deeper into that.
Belts can be imagined as "moving ground". Everything on a belt is moved in the belts direction.
Technically an item is a small box (Collision box) and moving means, that the position of an item is constantly changed but the items are not allowed to overlap. A picture can show you, the movement better:
Here you can see the items moving upward tick by tick. And when coming to the turn, they aren't rotated, but moved to the side.
Note: You can watch the collision boxes running on the belt in game, when you press F6! See Game-options/Keyboard binding.
Combining belts
Turns
It is guaranteed, that that turns keep the alignment of items. Inner side of the turn moves items at half the speed, meaning turns are likely to be bottlenecks. Using faster belts at the turns is recommended.
See also
- Transport belts/Turns for details about turns.
- Transport belts/Optimizing about other ways to speed up this bottleneck.
Belt Lanes: using two sides
Because a belt is much broader than an item, a belt has two lanes, that can be used for transporting. But there are many more things, that can be done with the two lanes.
See also
- Transport belts/Belt lane for more about usage of the two lanes of a belt.
- Transport belts/Optimizing
Side inserts (Crossings)
When belts are crossing, items are inserted from the side, items stay on the side of the belt it came from.
See also
- Transport belts/Side insert how to use it efficiently.
Expert
Special behavior
- Transport belts/Physics
- Transport belts/Turns
- Transport belts/Blocking items
- Transport belts/Side insert
- Transport belts/Optimizing
Other Usages
- Transport belts/Speedup Walking: Walk/run in belt direction add the speed of the belt to your own.
- Transport belts/Defense: Use the Express belt to slow down the enemies
Useless knowledge
- Transport belts/Transport other entities: even the car can be transported with belts.
- Transport belts/Why do belts use no energy?: Some reasons...