Four tools that turn a throughput problem into a layout you can build: exact splitter and merger trees, never a rounded average.
Which tool answers which question?
The belt balancer gives every output the same rate, the load balancer gives each output a rate you type, the belt compressor packs partly filled belts into full ones, and the clock optimizer trades machines against clock speed. They do not overlap, so pick the one whose question is yours.
- Belt balancer — saturated inputs, and N outputs that must all carry the same rate. It returns an exact splitter and merger tree, with a loopback when the output count needs one.
- Load balancer — any inputs, and outputs that each carry a rate you type. Whatever is left over goes to a sink you have to drain.
- Belt compressor — several partly filled belts, packed into as few completely full belts as possible using Smart Splitters.
- Clock optimizer — machines, clock speed and output, where locking one of the three and driving a second reads out the third, priced in power shards.
What makes these rates exact?
Every rate is an exact rational number, computed as a fraction and never as a floating-point value. A belt carrying 1200/7 items/min is carried as 1200/7 all the way into the layout, and rounded only when it is printed on the screen.
- No simulation. The network is solved arithmetically. Nothing is run down a belt to see where the items end up.
- No rounding inside the plan. A label reading 171.4 items/min is 1200/7 underneath, and hovering the belt shows the fraction.
- Belt capacity is a hard constraint. No plan is ever returned with a belt over its tier rate. When no topology fits, the tool refuses and names the belt tier that would.
- Real building limits. A Splitter has one input and at most 3 outputs, a Merger at most 3 inputs and one output, and every plan respects both.
What are the belt tiers and their rates?
A Conveyor Belt carries a fixed maximum number of items per minute, and that ceiling is what every layout here is checked against, belt by belt. These are the Satisfactory 1.0 rates.
| Conveyor Belt | Rate | Items per second |
|---|---|---|
| Mk.1 | 60 items/min | 1/s |
| Mk.2 | 120 items/min | 2/s |
| Mk.3 | 270 items/min | 4.5/s |
| Mk.4 | 480 items/min | 8/s |
| Mk.5 | 780 items/min | 13/s |
| Mk.6 | 1200 items/min | 20/s |
The tier you pick changes the answer, not just the colour of the belt: the same problem can be a three-building funnel on a Mk6 and refused outright on a Mk4.
Do I need a balancer at all?
Often not. A manifold — one line of Splitters with the machines hanging off it — balances itself by back pressure, and it needs no Merger, no loopback and no inflated trunk belt.
It only works under three conditions, and the belt balancer checks all three before offering it:
- the machines on the line are identical, so they all pull the same rate;
- the supply covers the demand, otherwise the far end of the line starves for good instead of settling down;
- the whole flow fits on one belt, because the head of the line carries all of it — a manifold for 12 machines at 120 items/min needs 1440 items/min at its head, which no belt tier can carry.
When one of the three fails, an exact tree is the answer, and that is what the belt balancer builds.
Frequently asked questions
Can I build the plan exactly as it is drawn?
Yes. The plan is drawn to the game’s scale rather than as a flowchart: a Splitter or a Merger is a 2 m box with one belt per face, the fine grid is one metre and the coarse one is eight, the size of a foundation. The belt style it opens on is Curves, which reads best on screen; switch it to Right angles for the buildable version, where every belt leaves and enters a face square on and the corners are kept to a minimum.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. On a narrow screen the plan flows top to bottom instead of left to right, one finger pans the layout, two fingers pinch to zoom, a double tap zooms one step, and the input form folds away by its handle so the plan is on screen without scrolling.
Which game version are the rates from?
Satisfactory 1.0. The six belt rates are the 1.0 values, and the recipe list is re-imported by hand from the game documentation pages published on the Satisfactory wiki, once per game version rather than at every build.
Can I share a layout?
Yes. The inputs are kept in the address bar, so copying the URL shares the exact problem and the plan it produces, in the language of the page you copied. Each plan also exports as an SVG file.