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Chapter 9: Fluid Pipes, Pump Covers & Liquid Transport

IC2 Rebranded includes a modular, high-throughput fluid pipe transport network designed for liquid automation, reactor cooling, and machine integration.

1. Overview of Fluid Pipes

IC2 fluid pipes come in two alloy types (Bronze and Steel) and four standardized diameters (Tiny, Small, Medium, and Large). The pipe's throughput scales according to both its material and its size diameter.

Pipe Materials

Material Base Flow Rate Description
Bronze $2,400\text{ mB/s}$ ($120\text{ mB/t}$) Standard alloy fluid pipe for base automation and fuel routing.
Steel $4,800\text{ mB/s}$ ($240\text{ mB/t}$) Heavy-duty, reinforced conduit with double the flow rate of bronze, ideal for nuclear reactor coolant circuits.

Pipe Sizes & Throughput Multipliers

The effective throughput per pipe is calculated as: $$\text{Throughput} = \text{Base Material Rate} \times \text{Size Multiplier}$$

Pipe Size Block Registry Name Thickness Size Multiplier Bronze Flow Rate Steel Flow Rate
Tiny ic2:bronze_pipe_tiny
ic2:steel_pipe_tiny		 $4\text{ px}$ $\times \frac{1}{6}$ $20\text{ mB/t}$ ($400\text{ mB/s}$) $40\text{ mB/t}$ ($800\text{ mB/s}$)
Small ic2:bronze_pipe_small
ic2:steel_pipe_small		 $6\text{ px}$ $\times \frac{1}{3}$ $40\text{ mB/t}$ ($800\text{ mB/s}$) $80\text{ mB/t}$ ($1,600\text{ mB/s}$)
Medium ic2:bronze_pipe_medium
ic2:steel_pipe_medium		 $8\text{ px}$ $\times 1.0$ $120\text{ mB/t}$ ($2,400\text{ mB/s}$) $240\text{ mB/t}$ ($4,800\text{ mB/s}$)
Large ic2:bronze_pipe_large
ic2:steel_pipe_large		 $10\text{ px}$ $\times 2.0$ $240\text{ mB/t}$ ($4,800\text{ mB/s}$) $480\text{ mB/t}$ ($9,600\text{ mB/s}$)

2. Pump Cover Attachments

Pipes by default transfer fluids passively along connected networks. To actively extract fluids from adjacent machines, tanks, or cauldrons, apply a Pump Cover Attachment to a pipe connection face.

Pump Cover Tiers

Pump covers correspond to IC2 voltage tiers and provide increasingly rapid fluid extraction:

Cover Tier Item Registry Name Extraction Rate Color Accent Recommended Use
LV Pump Cover ic2:cover_pump_lv $32\text{ mB/t}$ ($640\text{ mB/s}$) Green General machinery & basic fluid generators.
MV Pump Cover ic2:cover_pump_mv $128\text{ mB/t}$ ($2,560\text{ mB/s}$) Yellow High-demand ore washing & thermal centrifuges.
HV Pump Cover ic2:cover_pump_hv $512\text{ mB/t}$ ($10,240\text{ mB/s}$) Orange Nuclear reactor hot coolant extraction.
EV Pump Cover ic2:cover_pump_ev $2,048\text{ mB/t}$ ($40,960\text{ mB/s}$) Red Massive industrial fluid grids & matter generators.

3. Cauldron Liquid Pumping

In modern Minecraft (1.21.1+), Pointed Dripstone can passively generate Water and Lava inside vanilla cauldrons. IC2 fluid pipes and pumps have native cauldron integration:

  • Fluid Pipes with Pump Covers: Place any fluid pipe adjacent to or directly above a cauldron with a Pump Cover attached to that face. The pipe will automatically detect the cauldron fluid level and siphon the liquid directly into the pipe network as soon as it forms.
  • IC2 Machinery Pump: An active IC2 Pump block placed directly in front of a cauldron (1-block distance) will automatically suck lava and water into its internal tank or connected fluid pipes.

4. Wrench Controls & Interactions

Fluid pipes and covers interact with any IC2 Wrench (ItemToolWrench or compatible wrenches):

  • Disconnect / Reconnect Face: Right-Click on an open pipe arm with a wrench to toggle its connection status (open vs disconnected). This prevents pipes from accidentally bonding to neighboring blocks.
  • Retrieve Pump Cover: Sneak + Right-Click on a covered pipe face with a wrench to safely detach the pump cover and drop it back into your inventory.
  • Harvest Pipe: Right-clicking the center node of the pipe with an electric or standard wrench will safely dismantle the pipe and all attached covers.

5. Add-on Code: Programmatic Integration

Custom add-ons can interact with fluid pipes via NeoForge's IFluidHandler capability:

import ic2.core.block.transport.PipeType;
import ic2.core.block.transport.PipeSize;
import ic2.core.block.transport.TransportPipeBlock;
import ic2.core.block.transport.TransportPipeBlockEntity;
import net.minecraft.core.Direction;
import net.minecraft.core.BlockPos;
import net.minecraft.world.level.Level;
import net.neoforged.neoforge.fluids.capability.IFluidHandler;

public class AddonPipeHelper {
    public static void inspectPipe(Level level, BlockPos pos, Direction side) {
        if (level.getBlockEntity(pos) instanceof TransportPipeBlockEntity pipe) {
            // Check pipe type and size
            PipeType type = pipe.getPipeType();
            PipeSize size = pipe.getPipeSize();
            int transferRate = type.getTransferRatePerTick();

            // Access fluid capability
            IFluidHandler fluidHandler = pipe.getFluidHandler(side);
        }
    }
}