Carrying ore to the furnace, ingots to the printer, finished parts to storage: that takes time you can spend better. Chutes do the walking for you. They connect machines through a port of their own and pass items along piece by piece. This article explains the parts. How to sort and stack with logic is covered in Sorters, stackers and chute valves with logic.
The basic principle
Every chute piece has exactly one transport slot. It holds at most one item – a single piece or a whole stack. The piece hands it on to the next one as soon as there is room. A chute line is therefore a chain of single places.
Two rules follow from that:
- If the end is full, everything behind it backs up. An outlet where nobody collects slows the whole line.
- Stacks are efficient. 50 single iron ores occupy 50 places, a stack of 50 occupies one. That is why the Stacker combines items before they go on a long run.
Many machines have their own chute ports for input and output: furnace, advanced furnace and arc furnace, autolathe, electronics printer, pipe bender, tool manufactory, recycler, centrifuge, automated oven, advanced packaging machine, composter, vending machine and the rocket manufactory. So a chute can run directly from machine to machine.
The kits
Almost all parts come from two kits:
| Kit | Ingredients | builds |
|---|---|---|
| Kit (Basic Chutes) (basic chutes) | 3 iron | straight, corner, window, junction, flip-flop splitter, valve, overflow, inlet, outlet, straight 3, 5 and 10 |
| Kit (Powered Chutes) (powered chutes) | 3 iron, 2 electrum, 2 constantan | digital valves, digital flip-flop splitters, import and export bins |
The autolathe and the hydraulic pipe bender make both. The simple parts need no power, the powered ones 5 to 10 W.
A worked example for a run of 30 tiles:
- 30 single straights: 30 kits = 90 iron
- 3 × straight 10: 3 × 8 = 24 kits = 72 iron
Long straights save a fifth of the material. For bends and branches you still need single pieces.
Inputs
- The Chute Inlet is the simplest drop-off point: one slot, one chute output, no power. Through its data port it counts with
ImportCount. - The Chute Import Bin is the powered variant at 5 W. It knows
OnandOpen, so a chip can lock it when the line is full. - Every machine with a chute output is also an input for the next run.
Outputs
- The Chute Outlet is the counterpart to the inlet: chute input, one export slot, no power. It holds only one place – if you take nothing out, the line backs up.
- The Chute Export Bin (5 W) is the powered output bin with
OnandOpen. - For large amounts, put storage with a chute input at the end, such as the Vending Machine with 100 storage slots.
Branching and merging
| Part | Connections | Power |
|---|---|---|
| Chute (Junction) | 2 inputs, 1 output | – |
| Chute Overflow | 1 input, 2 outputs | – |
| Chute Flip Flop Splitter | 1 input, 2 outputs, modes Mode0/Mode1 | – |
| Chute Digital Flip Flop Splitter Left | 1 input, 2 outputs, by logic | 10 W |
| Chute Valve | 1 input, 1 output | – |
| Chute Digital Valve Left | 1 input, 1 output, Open by logic | 10 W |
The junction merges two lines, for example the outputs of two furnaces into shared storage. Overflow and splitter divide a line. If you want to separate items by type, use a Sorter.
The digital parts each come in a left and a right version so they fit the line layout.
Storage
| Storage | Slots | Connection |
|---|---|---|
| Dynamic Crate | 10 | none, movable |
| Vending Machine | 100 + import and export | chute in and out, data |
The crate is storage for manual work and transport, the vending machine storage for automation: it accepts items via chute and hands them out again on request via RequestHash. An example of how it feeds a furnace is on its device page.
A capacity example: 100 slots hold 100 stacks. With iron ore at 50 per stack that is up to 5,000 ore in a single machine.
Common mistakes
- Nothing moves: input and output swapped. Inlet and import bin have a chute output, outlet and export bin a chute input.
- The line is full: nobody collects at the end. Put storage at the end or an overflow in front of it.
- The machine accepts nothing: its import slot is occupied, or it has no recipe for this item.
- Material runs short: long runs made of single pieces. Use straight 5 and straight 10.
Next steps
- Sorting, stacking and IC10 control: Sorters, stackers and chute valves with logic
- Loading furnaces via chute: Furnaces and alloys
- Moving cargo with crates and rovers: Rovers, landers and portable devices
- What each printer makes: Recipes by machine