Iron Industry Expanded (iiex)

Iron Industry Expanded runs iron from ore to cast parts. It is the iron tier of the Expanded family: the whole run from crushed ore to a cast part, and then the steam plant and shaft power that mechanise it. Ore and lime become burden, burden and coke are charged into a cold blast furnace in alternating rounds, and the furnace renders them into molten pig iron that is plumbed through canals to wherever it is to be cast. Pig is the shared intermediate and not a finished metal: remelted in a cupola it becomes cast iron for parts and machinery, worked down in a puddling furnace it becomes wrought iron, which is vanilla iron, and blister steel melted in a crucible furnace becomes the best steel the works makes.

It runs on exlib 0.8 and it is a new mod rather than an update of Pipes and Power Expanded or Steelmaking Expanded, so worlds started under the old line do not carry over to it.

The framework wiki is the modders section of this site. Getting started is the order to build things in, from prospecting to a cast part.

Contents

The mechanics, in the order the works is built:

1. Ore handling and burden - crushing, fluxing and charging the shaft
2. Coke and fuel - the coke oven, and what each furnace will burn
3. Furnaces and heat - the heat balance, blast, draught, lighting and going out
4. Molten metal and casting - canals, taps, molds and the sand casting stations
5. Iron and its grades - pig, cast, wrought and crucible steel, and how each is made
6. Diagrams and the design table - drafting plans, and the patterns cast from them
7. Pipe networks and pressure - pipes, pressure, valves and fittings
8. Steam and boilers - water, fire, steam and the ways a boiler goes wrong
9. Steam engines and sub-machines - engines, generators and pumps
10. Shaft power and the flywheel - the drive train the mill and the benches run on
11. Rolling and the forming shop - the mill, the shear, the fastener benches and the reheat

The furnaces, each with a page that builds it:

• Coke oven - two chambers that bake bituminous coal into coke
• Cold blast furnace - the shaft that smelts burden into pig iron
• Cupola furnace - the remelt that turns pig, chunks, bits and scrap into cast iron
• Puddling furnace - the reverberatory bath that makes wrought iron
• Crucible furnace - sealed pots on natural draught, and the best steel the works makes
• Heating furnace - the reheat the forming shop works from

Every block and item has a page of its own; the sidebar lists them by system.