Belt transport system

Transport belts(#1) move items, Splitters (#2) distribute the input onto both outputs 1:1, Underground belts (#3) are used to bypass obstacles.

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. Belts don't need power for transportation. This is one of the many Mysteries of the Factorio World.

Beginner

Transport belts	Underground belts	Splitters	Speed (tiles/second)	Needed research
File:Basic-transport-belt.png Basic transport belt	File:Basic-transport-belt-to-ground.png Basic underground belt	File:Basic-splitter.png Basic splitter	~1.8	Logistics 1 Basic underground belt and Basic splitter
File:Fast-transport-belt.png Fast transport belt	File:Fast-transport-belt-to-ground.png Fast underground belt	File:Fast-splitter.png Fast splitter	~3.6	Logistics 2
File:Express-transport-belt.png Express transport belt	File:Express-transport-belt-to-ground.png Express underground belt	File:Express-splitter.png Express splitter	~5.6	Logistics 3

Transport belts are just moving items. To take/put items onto a belt use Inserters.

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.

Merging and un-merging

Belts have two lanes that can be used for transporting. This allows for either a double flow of one material, or with some careful setup, transporting two different materials on the same belt. Mixed belts can be beneficial for smelting ore, or producing items with a lot of ingredients such as the science pack 3. Un-merging a mixed belt is fairly easy too, since an underground belt will block half of your a belt. So there is no reason to be afraid of mixed belts at all.

   

Balancing belts

Sometimes you will find one side of a belt more empty than the other. In this care rebalancing the belt can be helpful.

The left design only rebalances equally if one side of the belt is empty while the right version always balances equally.

   

Advanced

Speed, Density and Throughput: About finding bottlenecks

Maximizing the throughput is important, since it will keep your belts efficient. Therefore we need to introduce some definitions:

Speed

How fast does a belt move.

Density

How tight are the items put on the belts.

Throughput

This is speed * density. It describes how many items pass by in a given time.

So there are two opportunities to enhance the throughput:

More density

Sometimes items have little spaces next to each other that aren't big enough for other items to fit in. In this case reordering the items can still increase the density. This can be done by temporary increasing the belt speed on a single tile or by merging 2 lanes with an inserter.

More speed

In case your belts already are at maximum density you can still upgrade your speed with better belts. But first you have to find the bottleneck.

The bottleneck can be seen quite easy, if there is a part of a belt, where the items sometimes stop or don't move (or don't move fast) at maximum density and suddenly they come to a point, where this 'stop and go' releases itself and they run free and are not so tight on the belt. This is in most cases the exact place, where you need to optimize your belts.

Belts

Animation showing the three types of belt and their speed (from top to bottom: regular belts, fast belts and express belts).

Type	Max. throughput (Items per game-second)	Speed (Tiles per game-second)	Max. density (Items per tile)	Required technologies
File:Basic-transport-belt.png Basic transport belt	13.393*	1.875*	7.143*	none
File:Fast-transport-belt.png Fast transport belt	26.786*	3.750*	7.143*	Logistics 2
File:Express-transport-belt.png Express transport belt	40.179*	5.625*	7.143*	Logistics 3

• experimental value: See Transport belt experiments for more detailed information.

See also

• Transport network
  • Transport belts
  • Splitters
  • Underground belts
• Transport
• Crafting network
• Logistic network
• Transport network
  • Splitters
  • Underground belts
• Transport
• Crafting network
• Logistic network
• Intersection with 4 belts from every side
• Transport belts/Transport other entities: even the car can be transported with belts.
• Why do belts not require power?: Some reasons...
• 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
• Transport belts/Physics
• Transport belts/Turns
• Transport belts/Blocking items
• Transport belts/Side insert
• Transport belt Optimising
• Transport belts/Side insert
• Throughput and bottlenecks.
• Speed, Distance, Throughput, Compression
• Tutorial for Belt Speed, Density and Throughput
• Transport belts/Belt lane for more about usage of the two lanes of a belt.
• Transport belt Optimising
• Transport belts/Turns for details about turns.
• Transport belt Optimising about other ways to speed up this bottleneck.
• Testing fast belt corners (interesting video)