Minimal Factory

You are in the real Hattingen – in the middle, the Henrichshütte blast furnace as a simplified model. You turn ore, coke and lime into liquid pig iron: you set the wind, switch the hot-blast stoves, adjust the burden and open the taphole when tapping. During the order new ore arrives – and the furnace needs more heat.

The surroundings are not invented: terrain, buildings, trees, streets and tracks come from official elevation data by Geobasis NRW and from OpenStreetMap; every cell is a cuboid. The plant in the middle is an independent, simplified interpretation – not a faithful simulation of operations, and no cooperation with the sites named. Minimal Factory runs right in your browser and speaks German and English: no download, no app, no sign-up.

• Your order: fill six torpedo cars with good iron and let them leave.
• The dock at the bottom holds the furnace and stations 1–4 – tap one and only its controls appear.
• Stoves: one blows hot wind, the others heat – switch in time.
• More wind means more iron – but the column sinks faster and the stoves cool down faster.
• Ore per coke sets the heat below – what you change at the top arrives only after about a minute.
• When tapping, open the taphole, switch the runner between track A and B and send full cars away.
• One line tells you what to do now: yellow for the next step, orange for the most important warning.