Item Pipe (GregTech 5)

The Item Pipe is the GregTech 5 way to transport items.

Item Pipes can be made from Brass, Electrum, Platinum, or Osmium, in Normal, Large, and Huge sizes. Large pipes have twice the capacity of Normal pipes; Huge pipes have twice the capacity of Large pipes. A Normal Brass Item Pipe can transport 1 stack of items per second. A Huge Osmium Item Pipe can transport 32 stacks of items per second.

It is possible to attach Covers to Item pipes. Shutter Modules, Conveyor Modules, Robot Arms, and Machine Controllers can be used to control how items are transferred. Additionally, Plates and Foils can be used to close sides of pipes, ensuring they will not connect on those sides.

Pipe blocks contain item slots equal to their transport capacity. Every second, they attempt to transfer their inventories to the nearest (non-Pipe) inventory capable of accepting items. After transferring the items, all slots in all pipes items traveled through will lock up for 1 second. If no connected inventory can accept the items inside the Item Pipe, they will stay in the pipe and block new items from entering. Restrictive Item Pipes function like normal Item Pipes, but the 'nearest inventory' calculation treats them as being significantly longer than normal pipes. As such, an item will only travel through a Restrictive Pipe when it has no other places to go.

For identification purposes, Item Pipes can be painted using IndustrialCraft Painters.

Note: GregTech Machines will not accept more than 1 full stack of any one item through pipes.

Note 2: For all intents and purposes, GregTech Item Pipes teleport items from their starting points to their destinations. Apart from the 1 second lock times, items do not take time to travel down pipes.

Tip: When items get inserted into specific slots with Robot Arms or Regulators, they will only use that slot internally, and the other slots can still be used even when that item can't exit the Pipe.