Solid Filter

The Solid Filter is a conveyor building used to sort mixed solid cargo into two streams. It has two outputs: the standard green output and a centered orange output. The orange output carries the solid selected for filtering, while the green output carries every other solid that passes through. In practice, this makes it useful anywhere a mixed conveyor line needs to be separated into one specific material and a general remainder.

The building only consumes power while solids are moving through it, so it is most efficient when used on lines that already have a steady flow of items. It is especially effective as the first step in a multi-stage sorting setup, where the most common material is filtered out first, then the next most common, and so on. This approach reduces the amount of sorting work done by later filters and helps keep the conveyor network simpler.

A common use case is separating materials from ranch outputs or other mixed solid sources. For example, a Conveyor Loader can send a mix of materials from a Pip ranch into a conveyor line, and a Solid Filter can pull out one desired item such as wood for delivery near a Wood Burner while sending the rest elsewhere. Since the filter only acts on solids, it is best suited to lines made of solid cargo rather than general item handling.

A few practical points are worth keeping in mind:

• The selected solid goes to the orange output; all other solids go to the green output.
• The filter draws power only when items are actually moving through it.
• It is best used to isolate the most frequent material in a mixed stream first.
• If the filter is disabled by automation, no items pass through at all, including the selected solid.
• Because automation-disabled filters block traffic completely, a bypass route is needed if you want to avoid backing up the conveyor network.

When building a sorting system, it helps to know which solid appears most often. One effective method is to collect solids from a target area into a Storage Bin until it is full, then inspect the contents to estimate the mixture. That information can then be used to choose the best order for multiple filters.