Smelter Throughput — Balancing Crushers, Furnaces, Belts
Why your smelter becomes the bottleneck and how to balance crushers, furnaces, and conveyors for steady metal output.
Why smelters bottleneck
A single smelter eats ore faster than one crusher can supply it. The classic symptom: crushers idle while the smelter input starves, then the smelter stalls waiting for the next batch. The fix is ratio, not more furnaces.
Balancing crushers
A copper line works at roughly 2 crushers : 1 smelter for the base tier. Each crusher outputs one crushed unit every 3 seconds; the smelter consumes one every 4 seconds. Two crushers cover the smelter with spare capacity.
Belt merging
Feed the smelter from a merged belt, not a single line. Use a 2→1 belt merger so both crushers deliver without one blocking the other. Keep the merge close to the smelter to avoid belt congestion.
Smelter tiers
Worker licenses unlock faster tiers:
- Smelter L1 — 4s per ingot.
- Smelter L2 (license) — 2.5s per ingot, double throughput.
- Parallel L2 furnaces beat one L3 furnace on power draw.
Quick checklist
- 2 crushers per smelter on the base tier.
- Merged belt into the smelter input.
- No single-belt bottleneck before the merge.
- Upgrade to Smelter L2 before adding a third crusher.
Sources
- In-game machine specs (v1.4)
- Community throughput tests