Substation — Factorio Production Calculator
Substation is crafted in the assembling machine in 0.5 seconds, producing 1 per craft from 10 × Steel plate, 5 × Advanced circuit, 6 × Copper cable. At 60 per minute you need 1 assembling machine, and the chain behind it draws on 4 raw resources: petroleum gas, iron ore, copper ore, coal.
Production chain for 60 Substation / minute
| Item | Per minute | Machines | Machine |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iron plate | 3,600 | 192 | Furnace |
| Copper cable | 3,360 | 28 | Assembling machine |
| Copper plate | 1,680 | 89.6 | Furnace |
| Steel plate | 600 | 160 | Furnace |
| Electronic circuit | 600 | 10 | Assembling machine |
| Plastic bar | 600 | 5 | Chemical plant |
| Advanced circuit | 300 | 60 | Assembling machine |
| Substation | 60 | 1 | Assembling machine |
Raw materials
| Resource | Per minute |
|---|---|
| Petroleum gas | 6,000 |
| Iron ore | 3,600 |
| Copper ore | 1,680 |
| Coal | 300 |
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.
Substation recipe
| Machine | Crafting time | Output | Ingredients |
|---|---|---|---|
| Assembling machine | 0.5 s | 1 | Steel plate × 10, Advanced circuit × 5, Copper cable × 6 |
What the whole chain needs
60 substations per minute pulls in 7 intermediate products, and the whole tree comes to 546 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 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 substation
No base-game recipe consumes substation — 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 substation is made from
- Steel plate — 10 per craft
- Advanced circuit — 5 per craft
- Copper cable — 6 per craft
FAQ
How many assembling machines do I need for 60 substations 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 substation take?
At 60/min the chain consumes 6,000 petroleum gas per minute, 3,600 iron ore per minute, 1,680 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.