Conveyor Belts
Move items on belts! A staple to any factory!
Belt Basics
The following are some basic properties to belts that will help you better understand them.
Belts can hold four items on it at any given time.
There is 4 different speeds for belts.
The direction the belt moves items is based on the direction the player is facing when placing it.
Belt colors can mix and match. Unlike older versions of Minetorio.
You can mix and match belt speeds.
You can place items directly onto a belt by right clicking it with an item.
You can drop an item on top of a belt and it will go on the belt.
You can sneak right click a belt to take items from it.
The arrow color of the belt is an indicator of its speed.
Obtaining Belts
Belts can be obtained from a Crude Assembler. This device is where you can craft all belts and their support devices. Belts are made from carpet and redstone. So its a good idea to invest into a sheep farm as soon as possible as you'll want to use belts for most early game automation. Redstone can be obtained in mass from a crusher setup via crushing gravel into sand, then sending the sand to an infuser to produce redstone. To get faster speed belts you will have to unlock the required tech.
Movers & Belts
Movers work hand in hand with belts. Belts can't do anything on their own really without a mover. So here are some key notes about movers and belts.
Movers will always take from the side that is closest to it by default. So if the mover is close to the left side of the belt, it will only take items from the left side.
Movers can have modifier's on them to change this, with the right *mod* you can have the mover grab from any side of the belt.
Similarly movers can only put items onto the closest side of the belt, unless they have a mod allowing them to place on any side of the belt.
Movers can take items from a belt if its facing upwards or downwards from a belt. In this arrangement, the mover will take from any side of the belt by default.
To learn about mover modifications & settings you can go here.
Movers
Splitters & Phasers
Belts have unique interactions with these two devices. A splitter can be used to split up a belt into 3 lanes. It will evenly split these items up in a round robin style. This is useful for ensuring your getting items to other parts of your factory rather then one location always starving the rest of the factory. The slabs in the image below are actually splitters. Keep in mind you can use 2 splitters, you don't have to do a 1x3, it could be a 1x2 setup.
Phasers are useful for creating belt spaghetti or for those truly gifted in Factorio, belt weaving. Phasers can connect to another phaser to instantly move the item from a connected belt to the connected phaser. The direction of the phaser is important, they have to be facing opposite directions and have to be on the same y level along the same X or Z axis. The picture below will paint a better idea of what is described here. The stairs in this image are actually two connected phasers.
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