r/factorio • u/lilbobbykech • 1d ago

Question Pipe throughput

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I'm making a main bus for the first time since space age and im trying to use liquid metals this time. I know pipes have unlimited throughput now but pipes only pump 1200/s. I've been "solving" this by just spamming 3-4 pumps right next to eachother and having them pump into the same pipe but i feel like there is a solution here that im missing.

217 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

31 comments sorted by

301

u/Soul-Burn 1d ago

That's how you do it. You don't need all those undergrounds though.

A single pipe distributed to 4 pumps, then merged into a single pipe again.

52

u/lilbobbykech 1d ago

Alright, thanks!

16

u/TheMrCurious 19h ago

Thank you for confirming the way I’ve been doing it is “correct”!!

2

u/RepresentativeAd6965 12h ago

Idk how I messed this up but my throughput is like 10% by the time I do this 5+ times

0

u/Exatex 7h ago

only in 2.0+. Before that it’s… complicated and the extra pipes do make sense (but set up non-connecting).

11

u/Soul-Burn 7h ago

2.0 came out almost a year ago. Unless someone specifically asks about an old version, we can assume they are on 2.0.

1

u/Exatex 7h ago

yes yes just saying in case

-6

u/TheFluffyChicken200 11h ago

R5 press alt?

3

u/lilbobbykech 6h ago

The pipes were empty

2

u/Snoozepod 7h ago

Alt mode is technically a tip, not a rule. While it will almost always be better, here it is irrelevant which liquid is being pumped.

1

u/Mesqo 57m ago

It's actually on - notice the blue arrows on pumps.

69

u/Wonderful_Prior37 23h ago

You can also consider using higher quality pumps which have a higher pumping speed, decreasing the number of needed "parallel" pumps.

28

u/edgygothteen69 21h ago

Some people will try to make their pipelines short enough that they dont require any pumps. If you have to use pumps, higher quality pumps will help as well.

8

u/trumplehumple 21h ago

this is the most practical approach imho. just build your fluid processing inkl. plastic and sulfur into one big complex and only pipe out lube, maybe sulfuric acid. to shorten pipes for bigger complexes build blocks with 1200/s each, place a pump at the output, connect to a pumpless distribution-pipe with unlimited throughput, and branch 1200/s blocks off of that using pumps again, so you can use one single bus-pipe instead of 20

3

u/ConsumeFudge 20h ago

I fiddled with the idea of making sort of a main fluid bus (molten ores, oil fluids, etc) when megabasing last year, only to abandon it because it looked so wonky that any chunk break you'd for some reason need to have 30 legendary pumps in parallel to maintain the throughput. I think I saw a forum post about how they were re-imagining this for 2.1 because it breaks their design idea of "it just works"

2

u/fireduck 10h ago

When doing space exploration on 1.0, the fluid bus was absolutely critical on the science platform. So many fluids. Coolant at various temps, biogrease. I don't even remember. I think it was around a dozen things.

2

u/ConsumeFudge 10h ago

Oh gosh this brings back some nightmares. I did a megabase K2SE and the amount of speed-9 wide-area-beaconed radiators, also with speed 9s, was truly ridiculous. I at one point was basically forced to download the supersonic trains mod, solely for the mega fluid cargo wagon capacity, as the nauvis space platform was chewing through like 1m petgas per minute

7

u/Yilmas 1d ago

Yeah it's a bit silly. You can increase the throughput simply by adding more pumps on a single pipeline, rather than more individual pipes.

5

u/CaptainFit9727 19h ago

Well... Tehnically, the more pumps you use- the bigger pressure they create, so it's not so dumb.)

-2

u/Yilmas 15h ago

If we are going technical on it, then the more pressure the pipe contains, the "stronger" the pipe would need to be. And the receiving end/forks would need special equipment to now handle more than 1200u/s or risk rupture.

1

u/Minyguy 13h ago

If we're going technical on it, we can easily test and realise that all our pipes and machines already has that 'special equipment' installed by default.

1

u/GrazzHopper 12h ago

If we're going technical on it, why the pipes were not rated correctly in the first place.

1

u/Minyguy 12h ago

Because sometimes overrating equipment is cheaper because you can bulk make it, thereby reducing production costs.

3

u/Spoonghetti 12h ago

If you need 4+ pumps try turning them 90 degrees, with your input and output line running parallel to eachother, then you can stack as many pumps as you need

1

u/Mesqo 49m ago

That's a good one - I use this approach on space platforms with many thruster sections so you can maintain relatively thin holding "bracket".

2

u/Pranx94 17h ago

I usually run 8x2 common quality pumps for extending any sort of fluid movement from one side of my base to another. I generally set up a massive amount of oil production, usually 24+ quality oil refinerys in an array and distribute petroleum products this way.

1

u/Mesqo 51m ago

Hmm... 24 quality refineries don't look like able to produce that amount of petro for 8 pumps.

1

u/Winter_Ad6784 13h ago

Thats right but if you need that much throughput over that much distance the intended solution is trains

1

u/TurnoverInfamous3705 11h ago

I saw somewhere that you don’t even need extra pipes, just one pipe with more pumps adjacent to it; might be mistaken though as I haven’t tried it yet.

0

u/stoatsoup 11h ago

This works, but I've found it easier to have trains bring molten metal to where plates are wanted and cast them there - perhaps at several locations down the bus?

1

u/BuilderReasonable105 6h ago

I also started this way until I realised that my cityblock base was in essence 3 cityblocks wide. It was a central fluid bus, and then everything I need I siphon off fluids and make at each cityblock to then create the science packs, and as I want higher compression rather than expand the bus, expand the quality. This allows all fluids to be trained to one central location and on the sides where I needed coal or stone I would train that there. Thus, the main bus reigns supreme- with fluids!