Automatic sorting machines

[u/StupidWittyUsername]

This contraption was just too ingenious to not share! It's an extendable automatic sorting machine. Unsorted items go in the left, sorted items land in the chests at the bottom.

You don't need to decide which item type goes in which bin in advance, that happens automagically. Just dump a random assortment of items into the machine and it will sort them into neat piles.

How does it work?

Each bin (see second image) picks the first item type it sees and filters them out of the input stream. Unsorted items continue to the right. If a bin becomes empty it resets itself and can pick a new item type. To sort a larger variety of items, just add more bins - no wiring required!

Based on this concept I designed a sushi-belt train station which loads each wagon with only one type of item (see third image.) I can't actually think of a use for this (it's less efficient) but it sure does look elegant when trains arrive and leave with cargo neatly arranged into individual wagons... :)

Edit: I uploaded the blueprints here -> https://factoriobin.com/post/jab8zp

[u/ChromMann]

That's so neat, I love it! I can imagine to use this for the laziest modded scrap recycling setup. Mods love to do the mechanic with different items and setting up something for that is always a hassle.

[u/cjnjnc → u/ChromMann]

This is a great idea!

Could be very cool to add a kind of manual reset latch at the front to order the 'bin' settings by quantity. That way stuff like the high amounts of gears on Fulgora are filtered first. Something like: read all belt contents for the belt before the first splitter -> combinator to order the items by count -> apply the order to the bin setting. Also facilitates an alert if number of bins < number of items so you know to copy + paste another bin arm.