AE2FC
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WARNING: Outdated
Most of the content here is outdated and remains for legacy reasons. |
A Quick Guide to Applied Energistics 2 Fluid Crafting. In this wiki page we will concentrate on how to automate Singleblock Machines, Multiblocks and the Assembly line as well on the principles of AE2FC.
AE2FC can be composed of 5 important machines that will be explained in detail further below.
ME Fluid Discretizer
When the ME Fluid Discretizer is attached to your ME System, it will represent the Fluids that are stored in your ME Fluid Storage Cells (Or Storage bus) as drops. They will be the item equivalent of fluids. Its just another way to show fluids, it won't actually convert your fluids to items.
Each fluid drop is equivalent to one litres of the respective fluid. (1000l = 1 Bucket)
A Fluid Discretizer is needed to properly use AE2FC. Every ME-System should only accept one ME Fluid Discretizer as more will cause visual bugs.
Note that drops will get removed in the future.
You can treat the item drops as actual items and transport drops using an export bus to transport fluids in a different way, but that is not recommended to do.
ME Fluid Pattern Terminal
As the name suggests, it is simply the Pattern Terminal functional with fluids. When using NEI's built in + feature for creating patterns immediately, it will also contain the fluid. You can insert fluid manually using the fluid drops. Once you save your pattern, they will be converted into fluids. To change the exact amount, you can click the fluid drop with the middle mouse button which will give you a prompt to change the amount. If you add fluid in a container such as buckets, cells, flasks, the resulting pattern will keep the container just like it would in a normal pattern terminal.
If you insert the Pattern into a Fluid Interface it will try to output both fluids and items. However, if you place the pattern in a normal ME Interface it will send the fluid as a fluid packet which can later be turned back into an actual fluid. This principle will be used for the Assembly line:
This feature is intended but can be disabled in the config. Fluid patterns have a purple design. 
Dealing with ABS recipes
Inserting with containers is especially useful for Indalloy since NEI struggles to insert the recipe for ABS recipes into any pattern terminal. 100 flasks with 144ml of indalloy will be sufficient to make the recipe. To get all the items in the proper quantity for a recipe, simply CTRL + SHIFT + A the recipe in NEI and it will bookmark all ingredients.
Fluid Interface
The Fluid Interface works as you might think. Insert the purple pattern into it and it will start extracting both items and fluids. It can work on all sides so if one side is full, it will try to find another find to output to. It can output to any container and will try to output fluids first then items, unless you use the pattern in a normal ME Interface. Then it will send in order as the pattern is described.
Fluid Packet Decoder
Fluid Packets are created when a recipe that uses fluids is exported through an item-only ME Interface. If a fluid packet is placed into the Fluid Packet Decoder, it will attempt to store the fluid in a connected network. Despite automatically storing fluids into a fluid cell or fluid storage bus, it is also able to buffer the contents of a single fluid packet within itself, and have fluid extracted via pipe if necessary. The Fluid Packet Decoder must be powered to decode fluid packets.
It is advised to have the Fluid Packet Decoder on a dedicated subnet- this way, you can control where the fluid is stored. See the image for an example use case in the assline.
Ingredient Buffer
The Ingredient buffer is what allows easy management for Multiblocks. It accepts the items the Fluid Interface sends to it and stores it in its internal buffer. There is a default and a large version. The normal one can store 9 items and 4 fluids, the large buffer can store 27 items and 7 fluids.
Automating Multiblocks
This is one way of automating a Multiblock with EnderIO cables. Extracting the fluids and items from the ingredient buffer and sending it to different hatches. If you want, you can use a sub-me and (item/fluid) storage bus to distribute items.
Automating Singleblocks
Automating single blocks is very easy. For example raw carbon fibre: Make a pattern to turn 1 ingot of PET to 144l of molten PET and put it in a fluid interface dedicated for a fluid extractor. (Or a sub-net)
Make another pattern with the actual raw carbon fibre recipe and put it in a fluid interface for an autoclave. And done! Make sure to allow input from output (screw drive front) and it will work perfectly fine. You can also use fluid storage bus to use fluids instead of making a fluid extractor recipe for it.
Assembly Line Automation
For a detailed explanation of how to automate the Assembly line (and pretty much any other machine) Assembly Line Automation