Thermal Centrifuge
alaindustrial:thermal_centrifuge
Summary
The Thermal Centrifuge is the second ore-doubling step. The macerator already turns one ore block into two dusts; the centrifuge splits each dust in two again, into uranium concentrate, which is then pressed in the Compressor — two concentrate into one enriched uranium (U-235). A full line yields four concentrate, that is two enriched uranium, from one ore block, against a single ingot from a plain smelt.
The concentrate is pressed rather than smelted: the furnace already accepts uranium dust, and a second route through it would be both illogical (concentrate is something you squeeze, not melt) and confusing — two similar recipes in one machine.
Placing it and feeding it is not enough, though. This is the first machine in the mod you have to switch on and spin up: it needs a redstone signal and a hot Electric Heater directly below it.
Quick example: place the heater, the centrifuge on top, run a cable to it, drop in uranium dust and flip a lever. The rotor starts picking up speed and the heater starts warming. The heater gets there first, in about ten seconds, while the rotor takes twice as long to spin up — and only then does the dust turn into concentrate. Remove the lever and the machine stops and loses its spin.
Energy
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Role | consumer |
| Buffer (EU/FE) | 800 |
| Max input (EU/FE/tick) | 32 (the LV ceiling) |
| EU/FE/tick (working and spinning up) | 4 |
| EU/FE/tick while idling at speed | 1 |
Twice the price of an ordinary machine in this mod: the centrifuge doubles the rarest resource there is, and it never works alone — the heater below is part of the deal. Together the pair draws 10 EU/FE/tick, which still fits a copper cable (12 EU/FE/tick), but with almost nothing to spare. That is deliberate.
Spin-up and the signal
The redstone signal must be held, not pulsed. This is the opposite of the Mob Repeller, where a signal pauses the block: here the signal is the motor's start button, and reading its absence as "keep running" would make no sense for a machine whose whole identity is a spinning rotor.
| State | Condition | Draw |
|---|---|---|
| Stopped | no signal | 0 EU/FE |
| Spinning up | signal present, not yet at speed | 4 EU/FE/tick |
| Idling at speed | at speed, nothing to process | 1 EU/FE/tick |
| Working | at speed, with heat, input and room in the output | 4 EU/FE/tick |
A full spin-up takes 400 ticks — twice as long as the heater takes to warm up. The heater gets there first, and the machine visibly waits on its own mass: that is the heavy-rotor feel the centrifuge exists for, the reason it is unlike every other machine here. If there is not even enough power for the idle draw, the rotor sheds speed at half the rate it gained it: a short brownout does not throw you back to zero.
Cutting the signal is a full stop: the revolutions go to zero at once rather than winding down. The lever is an honest master switch for the whole line.
Heat
Only the Electric Heater will do. Lava, magma and campfires — all good enough for the Vulcanizer — will not start the centrifuge: its output multiplier is fixed, so a scale of heat tiers would be a dial with nothing to turn. While the heater below is still warming, the machine says so on its status line, separately from the case where there is no heater at all.
Processing
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Duration (ticks) | 200 |
| Cost per operation | 800 EU/FE |
| Yield | 1 uranium dust → 2 uranium concentrate |
| Auto-eject | no |
Inventory
| Slot | Accepts | Count |
|---|---|---|
| Input | uranium dust | 1 per operation |
| Result | uranium concentrate, machine-filled only | up to 64 |
The bottom face belongs to the heater and is closed to automation — hoppers and pipes work from the other sides.
Interface
Type: container Shows: stored energy, the rotor speed gauge, the progress arrow. The status line explains what is missing: "Needs a redstone signal", "Needs a heater below", "Heater is still cold", "Spinning up", "Uranium dust required", "No matching recipe", "Output is blocked". It earns its place because two of the four conditions — the signal and the heat — are invisible from inside the screen.
Block properties
The housing is an open frame with the spinning rotor visible through it. The hit shape is nevertheless solid and slightly smaller than a full cube — cut to the frame's openings, clicks would pass straight through.
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Shape | 14×16×14, not an occluder |
| Hardness | 3.0 |
| Blast resistance | 6.0 |
| Tool | pickaxe |
Recipes
Pressing the concentrate (two into one):
Progression
Tier: LV Requires: a machine casing, electronic circuits, an Electric Heater and a source of redstone signal. Unlocks: uranium concentrate and, through the Compressor, enriched uranium — the material behind the future nuclear branch.
Related
Electric Heater — the required heat source below. Vulcanizer — the second machine on the same heater. Macerator — the first doubling step, which feeds the dust. Uranium — the material the whole chain exists for.
Crafting
Shaped Crafting
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Thermal Centrifuge