Belt transport system
The belt transport system is the first transport system available in Factorio, and together with Trains and Logistics Robots make up the backbone of any Factorio base. Transport belts (sometimes called conveyors) are used to transport Items.
There are three types of belt, each with three different speed tiers. The three types of belt are:
File:Basic-transport-belt.png File:Fast-transport-belt.png File:Express-transport-belt.png - Transport belts
File:Basic-transport-belt-to-ground.png File:Fast-transport-belt-to-ground.png File:Express-transport-belt-to-ground.png - Underground belts
File:Basic-splitter.png File:Fast-splitter.png File:Express-splitter.png - Splitters
Differences between the belt tiers
The main difference between different tiers of belt is the speed at which they operate. As belt is upgraded from yellow to red to blue, it gets faster and is able to move more items. The Physics page has some technical information on exact values for each tier of transport belt.
General behavior
Power usage
Belts don't need power for transportation. This is one of the many Mysteries of the Factorio World.
But, like other Mysteries of the Factorio World, this is purely for gameplay reasons. If transport belts needed power, the game would be much more difficult and the player would have to worry about the entire factory coming to a standstill if power was lost.
For example, if belts needed power, a player might lose the ability to get Coal to their Steam engine. This would mean the player can't generate more power using the steam engine, which means the belts don't bring coal to the engine, etc.
This type of deadlock is avoided by allowing transport belts to operate without power.
Debug mode
Belts can be envisioned as "moving ground." Every item on a belt is moved in the belt's direction each tick.
Every item is a small entity with a collision box (to see this, turn on "collision box" in debug mode). When the belt moves, the item (and the item's collision box) moves along with it. When on a belt, item's collision boxes never overlap (see image below).
In the image above, imagine the items moving upward tick by tick. When the items come to the turn, they aren't rotated but are instead moved to the side.
When debug mode is used and the game speed is reduced to around 0.3, the collision boxes of moving items can be clearly seen.
Puzzling game element
Transport belts introduce a puzzle-like game element. The player needs to plan the transport belt system ahead of time, or else risk having to tear them up at a later time when things need to be expanded or moved around. Transport belts have many applications that are not immediately obvious, such as merging belt lanes together, balancing belt lanes, and overcoming logistical challenges such as maximizing throughput while minimizing size.
Many of the pages below include more information on those and other advanced applications of transport belts.
Overview
| Transport belts | Underground belts | Splitters | Speed (tiles/second) | Needed research |
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~1.8 | Logistics 1 Basic underground belt and Basic splitter |
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~3.6 | Logistics 2 |
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~5.6 | Logistics 3 |