Iron gear wheel — Factorio Production Calculator
Iron gear wheel is crafted in the assembling machine in 0.5 seconds, producing 1 per craft from 2 × Iron plate. At 60 per minute you need 1 assembling machine, and the chain behind it draws on 1 raw resources: iron ore.
Production chain for 60 Iron gear wheel / minute
| Item | Per minute | Machines | Machine |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iron plate | 120 | 6.4 | Furnace |
| Iron gear wheel | 60 | 1 | Assembling machine |
Raw materials
| Resource | Per minute |
|---|---|
| Iron ore | 120 |
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.
Iron gear wheel recipe
| Machine | Crafting time | Output | Ingredients |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assembling machine | 0.5 s | 1 | Iron plate × 2 |
What the whole chain needs
60 iron gear wheels per minute pulls in 1 intermediate product, and the whole tree comes to 7 machines across 2 machine types, fed by 1 raw resource. 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 120 per minute, which is 0.13 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 iron gear wheel
43 base-game recipes consume iron gear wheel, sorted by how much each one takes:
- Centrifuge — 100 per craft
- Express underground belt — 80 per craft
- Steam turbine — 50 per craft
- Roboport — 45 per craft
- Artillery turret — 40 per craft
- Fast underground belt — 40 per craft
- Personal roboport — 40 per craft
- Bulk inserter — 15 per craft
- Flamethrower turret — 15 per craft
- Tank — 15 per craft
- Artillery wagon — 10 per craft
- Cargo wagon — 10 per craft
- Express splitter — 10 per craft
- Express transport belt — 10 per craft
- Fast splitter — 10 per craft
- Flamethrower — 10 per craft
- Fluid wagon — 10 per craft
- Gun turret — 10 per craft
- Lab — 10 per craft
- Oil refinery — 10 per craft
…and 23 more, mostly buildings and equipment that use one or two each.
What iron gear wheel is made from
- Iron plate — 2 per craft
FAQ
How many assembling machines do I need for 60 iron gear wheels 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 iron gear wheel take?
At 60/min the chain consumes 120 iron ore per minute. Those numbers are the theoretical minimum — mining productivity research and productivity modules both reduce them.
Is iron gear wheel needed for science packs?
Yes — it goes directly into Automation science pack. Open the science pack page to see the demand that lands on this recipe.
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.