Heat exchanger — Factorio Production Calculator
Heat exchanger is crafted in the assembling machine in 3 seconds, producing 1 per craft from 10 × Steel plate, 100 × Copper plate, 10 × Pipe. At 60 per minute you need 6 assembling machines, and the chain behind it draws on 2 raw resources: copper ore, iron ore.
Production chain for 60 Heat exchanger / minute
| Item | Per minute | Machines | Machine |
|---|---|---|---|
| Copper plate | 6,000 | 320 | Furnace |
| Iron plate | 3,600 | 192 | Furnace |
| Steel plate | 600 | 160 | Furnace |
| Pipe | 600 | 10 | Assembling machine |
| Heat exchanger | 60 | 6 | Assembling machine |
Raw materials
| Resource | Per minute |
|---|---|
| Copper ore | 6,000 |
| Iron ore | 3,600 |
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.
Heat exchanger recipe
| Machine | Crafting time | Output | Ingredients |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assembling machine | 3 s | 1 | Steel plate × 10, Copper plate × 100, Pipe × 10 |
What the whole chain needs
60 heat exchangers per minute pulls in 4 intermediate products, and the whole tree comes to 688 machines across 2 machine types, fed by 2 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 6,000 per minute, which is 6.67 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 heat exchanger
No base-game recipe consumes heat exchanger — 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 heat exchanger is made from
- Steel plate — 10 per craft
- Copper plate — 100 per craft
- Pipe — 10 per craft
FAQ
How many assembling machines do I need for 60 heat exchangers per minute?
6 assembling machines. One at standard speed produces 10 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 heat exchanger take?
At 60/min the chain consumes 6,000 copper ore per minute, 3,600 iron ore per minute. 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.