(Almost) Universal Assembly

Your workers are artisans. Able to craft every product under the sun. So why do you stick them on boring assembly lines, day in day out the same thing to be hammered, screwed, connected? Often they even just sit around with no demand! Get the most out of your workers, Captain! Use Universal Assembly!

This Blueprint makes it possible. It consists of only one required module: The Universal Assembly Feed Module.

Ingredients can be provided and products be removed with any logistic tool you would like, conveyors, trucks, trains, (ships? Maybe soon) and any mix of them. Products produced using the system can be fed back in as an ingredient. No storage required beside the one buffer per module.

Yes. It's using sushi conveyors.

Folder includes Universal Assembly Feeder Module:

• a single stack sushi conveyor version
• a double stack sushi conveyor version
• an upgrade add-on to convert the first into the second.
• an extreme feed speed version

Subfolder includes a examples of Universal Assemblies themselves, as well as illustrative demonstrations of the system as seen in the images above.

Instruction:

1. Set out land to place Universal Assembly Line and Universal Assembly Feed line. Both are expandable in one direction. Don't have to be together or point in the same direction, just close-by.
2. Place Universal Assembly Feed modules. As many as products you would like to produce.
3. Set the desired product in the two labelled sorters.
4. Provide conveyors with ingredients to the balancer called "Recipe". Connect multiple conveyors, so the ratio of conveyors matches the ratio in the recipe. Switch to "exact time" in the recipe book for easier calculation. Look out for flipped conveyor direction! 4a. If it's impossible to exactly match the ratio. Configure and connect the "Imbalance" sorters and feed the overprovided ingredient back into the input. It can also be used if recipes influence each other.
5. Build a Universal Assembly line with chosen Assembly tier. Connect the sushi conveyor to as many inputs of the assemblies as possible while only using connectors that feed trough (should be two per Assembly in version 0.79a). Conveyors must not directly "connect into" Universal Assemblies!
6. Set desired recipes in one Assembly. I recommend higher complexity / higher tech products sorted higher in the list. Results in more consistent production. Copy settings to all other Assemblies.
7. Connect Feed Line to Assembly Line.
8. Connect Assembly Line output to Feed Line product input. Up to three conveyors can be connected to a sorter using a connector.
9. Add loop backs, connecting the end of the sushi conveyor to the Assembly Line output and the end of the sorter line in the Feed Line with the sushi conveyor. Use of ingredients is probabilistic, depending on number of assemblies and utilization more or less ingredients will require a second pass.
10. Unpause "Recipe" balancer. Test system. Look out for possible recipe interference.

Later: Add more Universal Assembly Feed Modules. Expand / Upgrade Assembly line if needed. Up- / Downgrade feeder module single tile feed conveyors if needed. Expand / Upgrade sushi conveyor if needed.

Caveats:

This system makes most sense for products that have fluctuating demand:

• Construction Materials
• Maintenance Products
• Certain Settlement Needs
• Burst Science

Or interlinked recipes:

• Electronics Tiers
• Lab Equipment Tiers
• Construction Material Tiers
• Vehicle Parts Tiers

No building ratios need to be considered. Just set up, feed ingredients, tweak a little and production will be done as needed. I use it for almost anything that can be produced using assembly.

Some products can not be run on the same system (hence the "Almost"):

• Lab Equipment I and Vehicle Parts I recipes are too similar and will interfere with each other no matter what. I chose Lab Equipment I on my Island.
• Mechanical Parts are too simple. They will leach off steel from all other recipes, even if set as the lowest recipe in the assemblies. It is possible to run it by only setting the last few assemblies to produce Mechanical Parts, but it's too fiddly to recommend.
• Some recipes will start leaching ingredients from eachother at points. Adjust priority order in assemblies to remedy. Set up imbalance sorters to quell consistent issues.
• The buffers have allerst on them by default. Depending on the capacity of the sushi conveyors there can be false alarms due to production spikes. Early and midgame though, an alarm usually signifies incorrect configuration somewhere.
• It's hihgly recommended to set up some keep under 75% or so commands on the buffers to quell spikes. I can't preconfigure this in the blueprient for generic storage sadly so it has to be done manually.
• If a buffer fills up the sorter line might block, which will lock up the whole system. Be advised: If the line overfills due to imbalance or a block on another output, there will be no alarm.
• Clearing blocks usually consist of fixing the underlying issue and then unity venting the one sorter that blocks repeatedly until the sorter line is empty.

Changelog:

2026-03-08 V3: Create an extreme feeder speed feeder module. Added another assembly example that is more suitable for midgame. Updated image two.

2026-03-02 V2: Moved sushi input balancer slightly to allow for easy double stack sushi conveyors. Added double stack blueprient version of module. Added upgrade add-on blueprint. Updated only second image. Functionally identical to original release version. Some descriptions corrected.

Last Tested: Update 3 | 0.79a (b500) / 2026-03-08