Surge Conveyor

Surge Conveyor is a 1x1 advanced conveyor block that packages items into batches and moves them faster than standard Plastanium Conveyors. It is used to accelerate bulk transport and can also conduct power to adjacent blocks. Surge Conveyors consume 1 power per second, can hold a single item batch at a time, and have had their health increased to 55 in later versions.

A Surge Conveyor operates in one of two states: loading or transporting. A loading Surge Conveyor is one that faces another Surge Conveyor but does not have a Surge Conveyor directly facing it; in this state it accepts inputs from the three sides other than its front and combines identical items into a batch. Batches must contain only one item type and cannot mix resources. Once a batch reaches the maximum size of 10 items, it is moved forward in the conveyor’s facing direction; the batch must fully leave the tile before a new batch can be formed. Loading conveyors are visually indicated by a gray circle, while fandom references note that input conveyors in a line are marked by a small dot (which can be obscured by a glowing arrow when powered).

A transporting Surge Conveyor is any Surge Conveyor that does not meet the loading condition. A transporting conveyor moves at most one item batch forward at a time. If there is no Surge Conveyor directly in front of it, the conveyor will output the batch as individual items in its facing direction. Transporting Surge Conveyors can receive item batches only from other Surge Conveyors on their three non-front sides; they do not accept loose single items from non-Surge Conveyor sources (including Surge Routers). Duct Unloaders and similar unloaders are able to remove items from a Surge Conveyor that is in the transporting state.

Throughput and scaling behavior differ from ordinary conveyors. Surge Conveyors have a base maximum throughput equal to the batch movement rate, and achieving that peak requires multiple conveyors in the loading configuration so batches can be continuously generated. There exists an optional speed multiplier that increases batch transport speed by 1.8×, raising the theoretical maximum throughput from 50 to 90 items per second when applied; this multiplier is applied to the speed at which batches are transported rather than to batch size. All Surge Conveyors can only hold one batch at once, so throughput depends on the spacing and arrangement of loading and transporting tiles in a chain.

Practical notes and interactions:

• Use Surge Conveyors where high-volume, same-item bulk movement is needed; they outperform Plastanium Conveyors for packetized transport.
• Ensure batches are fed by identical items only — mixing item types in the inputs will prevent batch formation.
• Arrange multiple adjacent loading-state Surge Conveyors when you need to saturate the chain’s throughput.
• Keep transporting conveyors aligned so batches can move from one Surge Conveyor to the next without breaking the loading condition.
• Duct Unloaders can pull from transporting Surge Conveyors; other non-batch conveyors cannot provide input to transition conveyors in a Surge line.
• Surge Conveyors also pass power to neighboring blocks, enabling compact layouts where power distribution and item transport coexist.