Balancer mechanics

Balancers are used to evenly distribute items over multiple belts or multiple belt lanes.

Belt balancers

1 full input belt gets split into two 50% full belts which get split into 4 belts that are each 25% full.

Belt balancers use the mechanic that splitters output items in a 1:1 ratio onto both their output belts. That means that a splitter can be used to put an equal amount of items on two belts. Since the process can be repeated infinitely, balancers with 2ⁿ output belts are easy to create.

First the belts A and B go through a splitter so that the output belts contain an equal amount of items from each input belt (AB). The same is done with belts C and D. Then the mixed belts AB and CD go through splitters so that their output belts contain items from each input belt (ABCD)!

Balancers also use the mechanic that splitters take an equal amount of items from both input belts. That means that a splitter connected to two input belts will evenly distribute those items onto the the two output belts. To balance belts it has to be made sure that the output belts contain an equal number of items from each input belt.

Throughput

Often, balancers are throughput limited. To be throughput unlimited, a balancer must fulfil the following conditions:

1. 100% throughput under full load.
2. Any arbitrary amount of input belts should be able to go to any arbitrary amount of output belts.

Balancers often do not fulfill the second condition because of internal bottlenecks. The gif on the right shows a 4 → 4 balancer being fed by two belts, but only outputting one belt which means that its througput in that arrangement is 50%. The bottleneck in this balancer is that the two middle belts only get input from one splitter. So, if only one side of that splitter gets input, as can be seen in the gif, it can only output one belt even though the side of the splitter is fed by a splitters which gets two full belts of input. In this particular case, the bottleneck can be fixed by feeding the two middle output belts with more splitters. This is done by adding two more splitters at the end of the balancer, as it can be seen here:

However most balancers' bottlenecks can't be solved as easily. A guaranteed method to achieve throughput unlimited balancers is to place two balancers back to back that fulfil the first condition for throughput unlimited balancers (100% throughput under full load). The resulting balancer is usually larger than a balancer that was initially designed to be throughput unlimited. This is the case because they use more splitters than the minimum required amount of splitters for a throughput unlimited balancer. For n → n balancers where n is a power of two number, n×log₂(n)−n÷2 can be used to calculate how many splitters are needed. This formula is based on the number of nodes in a Beneš network, which is essentially the same as a throughput unlimited balancer — it allows any input to reach any output.

Lane balancers

The items are evenly sideloaded onto the output belt, achieving output balance.

Lane balancers evenly distribute input items onto the output lanes and evenly take them from the input lanes.

See also

• Belt transport system
  • Splitters
  • Transport belts
  • Underground belts

Further reading

• Balancer blueprint archive
• Command line belt balancer analyzer
• Fractal (2ⁿ) balancer generation tool
• Belt Balancers - how they work and how to make them
• Finding balance: A guide to belt balancers