Week 3: Logistics I
Splitters, T-junctions, inserters, underground belts and buffers as the components of belt logistics, building up to balancer theory.
10 August 2026
Outline#
- Splitters — merging and dividing belt lines, and the default equal-split behaviour that never crosses a belt’s two lanes.
- T-junctions — belts merging into the side of another belt instead of through a splitter, and how that collapses both lanes of the merging belt onto a single lane of the one it joins.
- Inserters — reach, rotation, stack size, and filtering as a control element, not just a mover.
- Underground belts — crossing belts and pipes without a physical intersection, and their maximum gap length.
- Belt sides — left-lane versus right-lane loading, and the real cost of splitting two items back apart cleanly.
- Buffers — chests or belt segments that absorb short-term demand spikes.
- Balancers — built from splitters and T-junctions together, and the difference between a design that only balances belts and one that balances belts and lanes both, fully throughput-unlimited.
Teaching team
- Professor T. Trupen — convenor