Box loaders

Box loaders are a common storage tech contraption that takes in items and "loads" them into a shulker box using hoppers or droppers. They can be used to compact items into smaller spaces and make handling items easier for both the player and storage systems.

Fundamental Mechanics:

It is useful (and often required) when designing loaders to know how filters work. Please see this page for an in-depth explanation of item filters. Second, you need to know how shulker boxes are automatically placed and broken in the world. This page explains that.

For a box loader to function, there are three components that need to interact with the box to be loaded.

1. A dispenser to place new empty boxes when one fills up,
2. A hopper/dropper to fill the box with items from the loader's input,
3. A piston to break the box once it fills up.

The image below shows a common layout for a single-hopper speed loader that includes all three of these components