When you first crash land on the alien planet in Factorio, you’ll have to slowly set up machines to help you survive, automating the process to save on time wherever possible. One of the first early-game structures you’ll build is a smelting array to quickly turn ore into plates that can then be used for a variety of different recipes.
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The process of smelting items is rather straightforward, but Factorio is all about efficiency, and if you want to efficiently turn your ore into plates, you’ll want to plan accordingly. Below, we’ll take a look at how to set up a smelting array to promote automation and efficiency.
How To Set Up A Smelting Array
A smelting array is a simple structure of Belts, Inserters, and smelting furnaces that turns a line of ore and coal into plates. There are many different ways to build a smelting array, but the most popular is a symmetrical line of two rows of furnaces, with items being fed from the top and bottom of either row into the furnaces.
The furnaces then produce the item and send it into a consolidated Belt line in the center of the structure, which can then be transported elsewhere for use.
This design can easily be expanded by simply extending the entire structure.
The key to keeping everything compact in this design is to have the coal and ore on the same belt, so that one Inserter can take both the coal and ore needed for a single furnace. This is done using two Splitters on a diverging path, one on the left and one on the right, each containing the two resources necessary. This will place the coal and iron on the left or right side of the Belt.
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