Buffer chest — Factorio Production Calculator
Buffer chest is crafted in the assembling machine in 0.5 seconds, producing 1 per craft from 1 × Steel chest, 3 × Electronic circuit, 1 × Advanced circuit. At 60 per minute you need 1 assembling machine, and the chain behind it draws on 4 raw resources: iron ore, petroleum gas, copper ore, coal.
Production chain for 60 Buffer chest / minute
| Item | Per minute | Machines | Machine |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iron plate | 2,700 | 144 | Furnace |
| Copper cable | 1,140 | 9.5 | Assembling machine |
| Copper plate | 570 | 30.4 | Furnace |
| Steel plate | 480 | 128 | Furnace |
| Electronic circuit | 300 | 5 | Assembling machine |
| Plastic bar | 120 | 1 | Chemical plant |
| Buffer chest | 60 | 1 | Assembling machine |
| Steel chest | 60 | 1 | Assembling machine |
| Advanced circuit | 60 | 12 | Assembling machine |
Raw materials
| Resource | Per minute |
|---|---|
| Iron ore | 2,700 |
| Petroleum gas | 1,200 |
| Copper ore | 570 |
| Coal | 60 |
Machine counts are not rounded up. Add a little headroom in game — belt throughput and inserter speed usually mean you want 5-10% more than the exact number.
Buffer chest recipe
| Machine | Crafting time | Output | Ingredients |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assembling machine | 0.5 s | 1 | Steel chest × 1, Electronic circuit × 3, Advanced circuit × 1 |
What the whole chain needs
60 buffer chests per minute pulls in 8 intermediate products, and the whole tree comes to 332 machines across 3 machine types, fed by 4 raw resources. The table above already sums demand across every branch — if copper cable is used by two recipes, you see the total, not one of them.
Belt check: the busiest input here moves 2,700 per minute, which is 3 of a yellow belt's 900 per minute. Above 1.0 and you need a second belt (or a faster tier) before the machines themselves become the limit.
What uses buffer chest
No base-game recipe consumes buffer chest — it is an end product. Once you build it, the chain stops here, which makes it a good target if you only want to size the sub-factory that feeds your mall.
What buffer chest is made from
- Steel chest — 1 per craft
- Electronic circuit — 3 per craft
- Advanced circuit — 1 per craft
FAQ
How many assembling machines do I need for 60 buffer chests per minute?
1 assembling machine. One at standard speed produces 60 per minute, so 60 ÷ that number is the count. The calculator above rounds nothing — add 5-10% headroom for belt and inserter losses in a real factory.
How much raw ore does buffer chest take?
At 60/min the chain consumes 2,700 iron ore per minute, 1,200 petroleum gas per minute, 570 copper ore per minute and 1 more. Those numbers are the theoretical minimum — mining productivity research and productivity modules both reduce them.
Machine counts assume bare machines at standard speed. Recipe data comes from the game's own prototypes (PlayerCalc, Factorio 2.0 base game). Not affiliated with Wube Software.