Steam engine — Factorio Production Calculator
Steam engine is crafted in the assembling machine in 0.5 seconds, producing 1 per craft from 8 × Iron gear wheel, 5 × Pipe, 10 × 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 Steam engine / minute
| Item | Per minute | Machines | Machine |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iron plate | 1,860 | 99.2 | Furnace |
| Iron gear wheel | 480 | 8 | Assembling machine |
| Pipe | 300 | 5 | Assembling machine |
| Steam engine | 60 | 1 | Assembling machine |
Raw materials
| Resource | Per minute |
|---|---|
| Iron ore | 1,860 |
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.
Steam engine recipe
| Machine | Crafting time | Output | Ingredients |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assembling machine | 0.5 s | 1 | Iron gear wheel × 8, Pipe × 5, Iron plate × 10 |
What the whole chain needs
60 steam engines per minute pulls in 3 intermediate products, and the whole tree comes to 113 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 1,860 per minute, which is 2.07 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 steam engine
No base-game recipe consumes steam engine — 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 steam engine is made from
- Iron gear wheel — 8 per craft
- Pipe — 5 per craft
- Iron plate — 10 per craft
FAQ
How many assembling machines do I need for 60 steam engines 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 steam engine take?
At 60/min the chain consumes 1,860 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.