Aluminum Explained
This guide is to explain the two (subjectively) best ways to set up aluminum in Satisfactory
Setup 1: Sloppy Aluminum (and Pure Ingot)
Pros
- Can fit a full setup in a single mk.2 blueprint
- Will not lockup unless inputs (bauxite + coal) are starved or outputs get backed up
Cons
- Can lockup if above conditions are not satisfied
How it works
This setup requires 2x refineries, sloppy alumina, an (external) water extractor and a fluid buffer. The setup is simple:
- Output of alumina refinery goes into scrap refinery
- Output of scrap refinery goes back into alumina refinery
- Water extractor makes up the difference
There are a couple components that make this work (and often this is why people get stuck trying to do this)
- The fluid buffer is not exactly needed but helps you gauge when to underclock the water extractor
- The valve prevents backflow into the scrap refinery
- The vertical junction lets water coming from the scrap refinery or buffer be used first over the water extractor
Info
The vertical junction will always prioritise the lower pipe over the higher pipes. This is not true for a horizontal junction (for obvious reasons)
Procedure
- Hook up the system
- Add the water extractor (adding a pump if needed) and let it fill
- as soon as the fluid buffer starts to have a permanent reservoir (IE: it's not dipping back down to 0), clock back the water extractor to the difference between the scrap output and the alumina input (80 p/m if not overclocking)
If it locks up
This system can lock up (stop functioning entirely) if there is too much water in the system to allow the scrap output to empty. This is common if the inputs get starved or the outputs back up and the water extractor keeps pumping water in.
In this situation, the fix is simple:
- Delete the fluid buffer
- Put the fluid buffer back and reconnect
That's it. Well fix your inputs/outputs as well.
Setup 2: Sloppy Aluminum + Sloop
Pros
- Fully self contained system (does not back up)
- Significantly more efficient for resources
- No water extractor needed (except for initial priming, unpackaging water works too)
Cons
- Cannot fit smelters in same blueprint
- Uses 2x somersloops per setup
Well, having to use any sloops is a significant con, but if you've ever troubleshooted a locked up aluminum setup, you'll realise that it's probably worth the expense.
It's also nice to get an absolute meme level of scrap out of a relatively small amount of bauxite and coal.
The idea is that you have one sloppy alumina feeding two aluminum scraps.
- One aluminum scrap is clocked at 2/3rds operation
- One aluminum scrap is clocks at 1/3rd operation
The fluid buffer can just get filled up the whole way via a water extractor (from the blue pipe in the photo), then the water extractor gets removed and said pipe connected to the alumina input (basically priming the water loop).
What results is a magical, 100% water out = water in self contained loop. It will not lock up, ever. If the inputs get starved, it just shuts down, if the outputs saturate, it'll just match the output.
Maximising the sloop use
So, sloops are expensive. We don't want to use a bunch of them if we can get away with it. What do we need to do to maximimise this setup?
Option 1: Maximizing the sloop belt
Pros:
- Maximises the sloop use
Cons:
- Can potentially (though unlikely) create a locked up system, if one belt output backs up at a different rate to the other one.
- Two outputs of scrap at different rates
We want to get the most out of our sloops to make sure they're not being underutilised. That means we'll have two scrap outputs, one of which is maxing out our belt speed, the other is "what's left".
- Set the output of the slooped scrap refinery to max a belt output (
390
or600
depending on what progression you are at, halved because it's slooped). - Set the output of the sloppy alumina to the same (easy!
390
alumina or600
alumina respectively) - Set the output of the non-slooped scrap refinery to half that output (
390/2
or600/2
respectively)
The results:
- if using
1200 p/m
belts - Sloppy alumina is max overclocked at 600 per minute, using 500 bauxite
- The combined output of the two refineries is 1500 scrap, using 300 coal (wow!)
- if using
780 p/m
belts - Sloppy Alumina is clocked at 390 per minute, using 325 bauxite
- The combined output of the two refineries is 975 scrap, using 195 coal
Option 2: Merging both belts at a max belt output
Pros:
- No possibility of a system lockup
- Single Belt to manage
Cons:
- Does not maximise use of the sloop
If you prefer to just have one belt coming out, you can equalise the system to push out a certain scrap per minute rate.
- Take your desired output (
780
or1200
most likely) and divide by2.5
. That is both your slooped scrap refinery output and your sloppy alumina output (312
or480
). - Divide that number in half again. That is your non-slooped scrap output (
156
or240
) - Merge the two scrap outputs into a single belt
Blueprints
For setup 1:
For setup 2:
Aluminum Scrap (Slooped).sbp 11027
Aluminum Scrap (Slooped).sbpcfg 151
Conclusion
Reflecting on success is not efficient use of time except during micro-breaks.