Inserters
< Transport network
Inserters are the fundamental components used to move items from one part of the factory to another. They are a vital component in almost all contraptions. They look and operate like a robot arm: they take items from behind and place them in front. For example, inserters can move items between machines, into or out of storage (such as chests) or onto transport belts.
Inserter Mechanics
Inserters will:
- Pick up Items off the Ground, off a Transport belt, or from any object that has storage space for stacks (including chests, furnaces and assembling machines)
- Place the item onto the ground, onto a transport belt, or into any object that has storage space for stacks.
Inserters act differently depending on what they are moving items to/into so as not to monopolize all of the items being picked up. This allows other machines and inserters on the same transport belt to pick up a share of the items.
Insertion Limits
Inserters will stop inserting items into certain buildings if they already have enough of that item. For example, if a boiler has 5 or more items of fuel in it, an inserter will not insert additional fuel. When the fuel drops below 5 items, the inserter will continue to insert more fuel, up to the limit of 5 items.
| Entity | Item type | Inserter limit | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boilers, Burner inserters, Furnaces | Fuel | 5 | Modders should avoid recipes for furnaces with fuel. |
| Gun turrets | Magazines | 10 | Since v0.8.4 |
| Assembling machines | Items needed for the recipe | Double the number of items needed in the recipe | |
| Furnaces | Items needed for the recipe | Double the number of items needed in the recipe | |
| Labs | Science packs | Double the number of items needed for one research point |
An inserter that takes items from an object containing stacks of items (such as a chest) can overfill the target building due to the Inserter item stack size. Overfilling can also happen if you use multiple inserters to insert items into the building.
Inserters and transport belts
- Inserters will always place the item on the further lane.
- Inserters prefer taking items on the near lane.
- For orthogonal belts, inserter place items in the direction of their rotation. This is by default up for horizontal or left for vertical placed inserters.
- When taking from a belt, they might change this initial direction!
- File:Mpstark-0XL7KBq.gif
- The end of the belt places the items in it onto the next Tile, so that the inserter can grep it. The last input should be one off. This can prevent the two items from simply sitting there at the end of the belt.
- Inserters can place items on
- All types of conveyor belts
- Underground-belt (entry and exit)
- Curves, but their behavior is then very "special" and the items have a big chance to block.
- They cannot place on splitter
- Inserters can pick up from
- Splitters
- First half of the conveyor belt
- Inserters have problems to pick up
- from fast belts, cause the items are moving too fast for them.
- picking up from curves
- from the entry/exit of an underground belt
Inserters and Transport Belts
Transport belts have two lanes on which items can travel. When Inserters place an item on the belt, they place it on the lane furthest from them (see above).
If you want to rearrange the items on the belts see : Transport_belts/Belt_lane#Changing_side_of_lane
Power usage
- http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5253
- http://www.factorioforums.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=5400
- Inserters/Reduce power consumption
Types
| Item | Total raw | Max power | Speed (Rot/sec) | Range (tiles) | Special |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
|
180 W (burner) | 0.6 (1x) |
1 | Only inserter using Fuel. Since v0.10.0 it will insert items with fuel value into itself when it has an empty inventory. |
 |
|
12.6 W (electric) | 0.8 (1.4x) |
1 | Standard inserter. |
| |
|
18 W (electric) | 1.1 (2x) |
2 | Only inserter with higher range. |
| |
|
31.5 W (electric) | 2 (3.5x) |
1 | Basic faster inserter. |
 |
|
44.1 W (electric) | 2 (3.5x) |
1 | Only inserter connectable to Circuit networks and with configurable working condition, such as filtering in only a specific set of items |
Special behavior
- Inserters/Interaction with other Entities
- Inserters/Instead of belt: Use it instead of a belt
- Inserter item stack size: Inserter moves more than an item per turn, works only for transport from stack to stack
- Inserters:Focus/Grep-Points
- Inserters/Priority
- Storages/Sorting (extended filtering)