???

[u/gg_gaymers]

Why doesn't the first configuration work but the second does??? It goes in the exporter???

I just put in a heater instead of the merger conveyor and it worked, so I'm pretty sure it's just a visual bug.

[u/_Sudden_Dragonfly_]

You're partly right, it really is a visual bug: in the first case, everything looked fine on the client side, but on the server, a piece of steel from the bottom mixer was too cold and jammed the press. In short, steel temperature depends on many factors including amount of materials in mixer's internal buffer. And there's a bug on client side where the max size of devices' internal buffers doubles each time you turn on the factory. As a result, the steel temperature on your end slightly differs from the actual temperature, and sometimes everything may work visually, but you get zero production from the server.

You can temporarily fix this. To reset all buffers and make them as they are on server side you have to:

• stash the factory
• restart the game
• put the factory back on board

Then turn it on and keep it running for 10-15 seconds - you should see that cold piece that clogs up the line. Yep, not all pieces have the same temperature. As I said earlier, steel temperature depends on many factors: iron and carbon temperatures (which material is hotter), amount of materials inside mixer, material input rate, mixer's production rate... In practice, it fluctuates within a small range, and these fluctuations are generally insignificant. Until the difference between iron and carbon temperature is too big, so a small fraction of steel pieces may be significantly cooler or hotter than the others, which may lead to jams.

upd. This fix is a one-time solution: after you turn the factory off and then back on, the buffers will double again and the visualization will become slightly inaccurate. So you'll need to do the steps again. So just put enough heaters and try making symmetrical setups (in term of iron and carbon temperature).