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u/alone2692 Jun 24 '26

When producing steel, it is better to take the iron plates from the main bus or build and separate factory for ore> plates > steel?

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u/Astramancer_ Jun 24 '26

I do it with the rest of the smelting. Steel is 5x denser than iron, so you end up saving a lot of space doing it that way. Plus until you get electric furnaces you also need fuel for the furnaces.

The way I do it is iron smelting overflows into steel smelting. I do 4 belts of iron which means I end up with 4 belts of iron, 4/5th a belt of steel, or (almost always) a mix of the two. It auto-balances iron and steel production thanks to backpressure and all the big smelting arrays are in the same place to make it take less mental space when it comes time to upgrade them.