Week 4: Ratios and Bottlenecks
Reading recipes as rate problems, an introduction to fluids and oil refining, and how module and beacon choices change a line's ratios.
17 August 2026
Outline#
- Input/output ratios — reading a recipe’s crafting time and ingredient count as a rate problem.
- Fluid systems — why fluids don’t have discrete belt “slots,” and the basic refinery-to-chemical-plant chain.
- Crafting time and ratios — why a ratio that balances two machines doesn’t automatically balance a five-step chain.
- Modules and beacons — speed, productivity and efficiency modules as a ratio decision, not just a power-cost one.
- On-site versus belted-in intermediates — local complexity against bus congestion.
- Chaining assembling machines — a worked example showing how ratio mismatches compound down a chain.
Teaching team
- Professor T. Trupen — convenor