# Satisfactory Modular Frames Production Guide - **Game:** Satisfactory - **Category:** Production Chains - **Author:** LongBeam (https://guides-factory.com/about) - **Difficulty:** Beginner - **Reading time:** 10 min - **Published:** 2026-09-17 - **Updated:** 2026-09-17 - **Tags:** Alternate Recipes, cast-screw, modular-frames, reinforced-iron-plate - **Adapted from:** [Easy 5/min Modular Frame Factory | Satisfactory 1.0 Guided Playthrough Ep. 6](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PXzuzpOxzrw) - **Canonical URL:** https://guides-factory.com/guides/satisfactory-modular-frames-production-guide --- ## 🎯 The core idea > Modular Frames are the Tier 3 part that gates Blueprint Designer unlock, and building a dedicated factory for them early is one of the most common bottlenecks new players hit -- the reinforced-plate and rod inputs are easy to under-build if you just bolt a few assemblers onto an existing line. This guide follows a real purpose-built factory that hits a clean 5 Modular Frames per minute off just two iron nodes, using the Cast Screw alternate recipe to skip a full production step entirely. ## Why a dedicated Modular Frame factory pays off Modular Frames use the standard recipe of 3 Reinforced Iron Plate + 12 Iron Rod → 2 Modular Frame per craft on an Assembler (60 seconds, scaling to 2 Modular Frames per minute at full clock -- confirmed on the current Satisfactory Wiki), and you'll need a lot of them well beyond the handful needed for early milestones. This guide's source video makes the case for a purpose-built factory rather than bolting a couple of assemblers onto an existing line: you'll quickly find yourself throughput-limited if Modular Frame production has to compete for iron with everything else already running through your starter base. ## Planning the ratio before you build ![A production-planning website (satisfactorytools.com) laid out to calculate the raw ore, intermediate parts and machine counts needed for a target Modular Frame output](https://api.guides-factory.com/media/uploads/2026/08/final_0623.jpg) Before placing a single foundation, this guide's source video uses a free online production planner to work out the full build: type in the target Modular Frame output, select the Cast Screw alternate recipe, and the tool calculates every raw ore, intermediate part and machine count needed to hit it. Planning this way -- or by hand on paper, which works just as well -- catches a mismatch between your target output and your available ore before you've wasted time building the wrong number of machines. ## Choosing a target output based on available ore This build sits on three normal iron nodes (180 Iron Ore per minute total), but deliberately caps the factory at 5 Modular Frames per minute using only two of them, or 120 Iron Ore per minute -- leaving the third node spare rather than maxing out every available resource. Five per minute needs 120 Iron Ore per minute total when split between the Cast Screw alternate (routing ore to screws directly) and the standard Iron Rod chain, which is a deliberately achievable target for a Tier 3 player rather than the largest factory the node cluster could theoretically support. ## Smelting: four Smelters, one clean number ![Four Smelters connected via a Mark 2 belt carrying combined ore from two iron nodes, producing a shared pool of Iron Ingots](https://api.guides-factory.com/media/uploads/2026/08/final_0793.jpg) Two iron nodes at 60 Iron Ore per minute each combine onto one Mark 2 belt carrying 120 Iron Ore per minute into four Smelters, each smelting 30 Iron Ore per minute into 30 Iron Ingots per minute (the standard 1:1 Smelter ratio -- confirmed on the current Satisfactory Wiki), for a shared pool of 120 Iron Ingots per minute to split across every downstream step. ## Iron Rods: the easy third of the split ![Two Constructors each converting 15 Iron Ingots per minute into 15 Iron Rods per minute at the standard 1:1 ratio](https://api.guides-factory.com/media/uploads/2026/08/final_0858.jpg) Iron Rods are the simplest leg of this build: two Constructors each take 15 Iron Ingots per minute and convert them 1:1 into 15 Iron Rods per minute (the standard Iron Rod recipe, wiki-confirmed), for 30 Iron Rods per minute total -- exactly what 5 Modular Frames per minute needs downstream. Pulling the full output straight off two of the four Smelters means the remaining two Smelters' 60 Iron Ingots per minute -- plus a chunk of a third -- are what feed the more complex half of the factory. ## Splitting fractional ratios with splitter arrays ![An overhead view of a splitter array splitting and re-merging belts of Iron Ingots into the exact fractional amounts needed for Reinforced Iron Plate and Cast Screw production](https://api.guides-factory.com/media/uploads/2026/08/final_1064.jpg) Hitting exactly 5 Modular Frames per minute needs 67.5 Iron Ingots per minute for the Iron Plate chain and 22.5 Iron Ingots per minute for the Cast Screw chain -- fractional numbers that don't come cleanly off a single Smelter. This guide's source video solves it with a splitter array: take a 60-per-minute line, split it into two 30s, split one 30 again into two 15s, then split one of those 15s once more into two 7.5s, and merge one 7.5 stream back into the other line to land on the exact fraction needed. It's fiddly to look at the first time, but it's a standard technique for any ratio a single split-in-half chain can't reach on its own, and it's necessary here specifically because underclocking (which would let you dial a Constructor to a fractional rate directly) isn't unlocked yet at this point in the game. ## Overbuilding machines instead of underclocking Without underclocking available yet, this build rounds up rather than running fractional machines: 1.8 Constructors' worth of Cast Screw production becomes 2 full Constructors, and 2.25 Constructors' worth of Iron Plate production becomes 3 full Constructors. Both are intentionally overbuilt rather than exactly matched to the ratio -- a completely normal early-game compromise, and one that resolves itself later once underclocking unlocks and a rebuild (or a blueprint swap) can tighten the ratio to exactly what's needed. ## Assembling Reinforced Iron Plate and feeding two inputs into three assemblers ![Two Assemblers producing Reinforced Iron Plate from Iron Plate and Screws, with conveyor lifts routing the output up to feed three further Assemblers making Modular Frames](https://api.guides-factory.com/media/uploads/2026/08/final_1146_v85OnMO.jpg) Reinforced Iron Plate uses the standard recipe of 6 Iron Plate + 12 Screw → 5 Reinforced Iron Plate per craft on an Assembler (confirmed on the current Satisfactory Wiki), which is why the Cast Screw alternate matters here: it produces those screws straight from Iron Ingots without ever building a Rod, saving a full production step compared to the standard Iron Rod-to-Screw chain. Two Assemblers running this recipe feed both the Reinforced Iron Plate and the Iron Rods on into three more Assemblers running the Modular Frame recipe -- deliberately run slightly under capacity (roughly 2.5 Assemblers' worth spread across three) to land on exactly 5 Modular Frames per minute rather than 6. ## Routing multiple outputs into multiple inputs cleanly ![Conveyor lifts used to route Screw and Iron Plate outputs up and over a factory floor so they can feed multiple Assembler inputs without belts crossing or clipping through each other](https://api.guides-factory.com/media/uploads/2026/08/final_1250.jpg) Feeding two outputs (Screws and Iron Plates) into multiple machine inputs (two Reinforced Iron Plate Assemblers) without belts crossing is a routing problem more than a ratio one: this guide's source video uses conveyor lifts to carry a belt up and over the factory floor, splitting off inputs at height rather than trying to route everything at ground level. A Mark 2 lift is used for the Screw line specifically because it's carrying just under 100 per minute -- more than a Mark 1 belt's 60-per-minute cap can carry on its own. ## The finished factory, ratio by ratio ![An overhead view of the completed Modular Frame factory, showing the full chain from iron nodes through Smelters, Constructors and Assemblers to the finished Modular Frame output](https://api.guides-factory.com/media/uploads/2026/08/final_1374.jpg) Traced end to end: two iron nodes provide 120 Iron Ore per minute into four Smelters producing 120 Iron Ingots per minute; 30 of those Ingots become 30 Iron Rods per minute across two Constructors; the remaining 90 split into 67.5 Iron Ingots per minute for Iron Plate production and 22.5 Iron Ingots per minute for Cast Screw production; both of those chains feed two Assemblers making Reinforced Iron Plate; and the Reinforced Iron Plate plus the Iron Rods feed three Assemblers producing a combined 5 Modular Frames per minute. Every number in that chain traces back to the same 120 Iron Ore per minute this guide starts with -- nothing in the factory is guessed. ## What Modular Frames unlock next ![The completed Modular Frame factory built into the terrain, stockpiling output automatically while the rest of the base continues expanding elsewhere on the map](https://api.guides-factory.com/media/uploads/2026/08/final_1497.jpg) Modular Frames feed directly into unlocking Steel production and, later, the Blueprint Designer -- which itself costs Modular Frames alongside Cable, Concrete and Steel Beam to unlock once Steel is running. Modular Frames are also a direct Space Elevator shipment further into the game, on top of every milestone that consumes them along the way, so exactly how many Modular Frames you'll need in total keeps climbing well past this first factory's output -- there's no single fixed number, since it depends on which milestones and Space Elevator phases you're pushing toward. This guide's source video treats the Modular Frame factory as a stepping stone specifically because it's needed before Steel Beams (and therefore the Blueprint Designer) can be built at all, which is why building it early and letting it stockpile output in the background -- rather than hand-crafting frames as needed -- pays off for everything that comes after it. ## How this guide was fact-checked The standard Modular Frame recipe (3 Reinforced Iron Plate + 12 Iron Rod, 2 per minute), the standard Reinforced Iron Plate recipe (6 Iron Plate + 12 Screw per craft, 5 per minute), the standard Iron Ingot recipe (1:1, 30 per minute per Smelter) and the standard Iron Rod recipe (1:1, 15 per minute per Constructor) are all confirmed on the current Satisfactory Wiki. The Cast Screw alternate recipe's ratio (12.5 Iron Ingot in for 50 Screw out per minute) is confirmed against community recipe references, and the guide's own fractional math -- 67.5 Iron Ingots per minute for Iron Plates and 22.5 for Cast Screws to hit exactly 5 Modular Frames per minute -- checks out exactly against those confirmed per-machine rates, which is a strong independent cross-check on the video's own on-screen numbers. The Steeled Frame alternate recipe mentioned as the natural Tier 4+ upgrade (2 Reinforced Iron Plate + 10 Steel Pipe for 3 Modular Frame per minute) is confirmed on a community recipe database. The splitter-array technique, the overbuilding-instead-of-underclocking workaround, the conveyor-lift routing and the specific machine counts all come directly from the source video's own on-screen factory build. ## What this guide doesn't answer This guide doesn't cover the Steeled Frame or other Tier 4+ Modular Frame alternate recipes in build detail, since they require Steel Pipe production the source video hasn't unlocked yet at this point in its playthrough -- they're mentioned here as the natural next step rather than walked through. It also doesn't cover Heavy Modular Frames, which is a separate, later-game part with its own four-input recipe and its own dedicated guide on this Content Plan. It doesn't lay out a specific factory layout with exact foundation dimensions either, since the source video treats the shape of the build as flexible and focuses on the ratio rather than the footprint. Finally, it doesn't give an exact number of Modular Frames required for every milestone that consumes them, since milestone costs are easy to look up directly in the in-game HUB and this guide focuses on production rather than restating a checklist that can drift between game updates.