# Pipeline Manual > Canonical source: [Pipeline Manual](https://satisfactorybase.its-live.dev/guides/pipeline-manual) > Language: en Master fluids, pressure, head lift and advanced pipe networks. Belts are forgiving. Pipes are not. A pipe network that looked perfect on paper can starve half a refinery row, stall a bank of fuel generators or simply refuse to climb a cliff — and the game tells you almost nothing about why. This guide walks through the whole model: how a pipe decides how fast it flows, what head lift really measures, and which arrangements of pumps, buffers, valves and junctions solve the problems that come up in practice. This page is an interactive adaptation of **The FICSIT Inc. Plumbing Manual: A Guide to Pipelines**. Every rule, number and example comes from that manual; the diagrams, calculators and knowledge checks are ours. Manual version: 1.4. Date: 21.08.2022. Written for: Update 5 + Update 6 (+ onward). > The manual predates the current release. We kept it faithful to its source rather than re-testing every statement against the latest patch, so treat the numbers as the manual’s findings, not as independently verified data. ## General pipe behaviour Pipelines are heavily simplified compared to real plumbing. Three properties explain almost everything they do. - **Bidirectional:** A pipe has no preferred direction. Fluid can flow either way through it. - **Gravity-bound:** A pipe will always flow downwards first, if it can. - **Pressure-based:** Pipes use pressure to move fluid. That movement is the Flow Rate. Those three lead to the behaviour you actually see in the field: - Pipes **build up pressure as they fill**. The fuller they are, the faster they flow — a pipe on its own contributes about `1.2 m` of head lift. - Fluid flows **from high pressure to low pressure**, which in practice means from a full pipe towards a less full one. - Until a pipe’s internal volume is full, it **cannot transmit ****Head Lift** from a machine or a pump. - **Flow Rate:** How much fluid is moving through the pipe right now, per minute. - **Max Flow Rate:** The pipe’s ceiling. It can never flow faster than this. - **Current Amount:** The internal volume — the bubble icon. It shows how full the pipe is, and it is the number that decides everything else. A pipe can only flow at maximum speed **if it is full**. At 50 % full it flows half as fast. The manual’s own example: a Mk.1 pipe holding `6` of `10 m³` flows at `180 m³/min`, not `300`. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#pipe-behaviour) | Pipeline | Maximum flow rate | | --- | --- | | Pipeline Mk.1 | 300 m³/min | | Pipeline Mk.2 | 600 m³/min | > **Why the number jumps around:** The flow rate display fluctuates constantly, because machines and pipes push fluid in bursts rather than in a steady stream. **The true flow is the average over time** — read the gauge for a few seconds before you believe it. Full Pipes are happy Pipes > **What to check first:** As long as you make sure the bubble icon is full, pipes should not behave in weird ways. Almost every strange pipe problem in this guide starts with a pipe that is not full. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#pipe-behaviour) The same rule explains a display that confuses almost everyone. A Water Extractor at `100 %` clock speed produces `120 m³/min` — but its gauge reads `300 m³/min`, and it says its maximum is `600`. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#pipe-behaviour) - **Max Flow Rate** is the speed at which pipes can flow and machines can empty themselves. - **Flow Rate** is the speed at which the machine is outputting fluid at this instant. - Pipes try to flow at maximum speed when they are full — and **machines do this all the time**. Every time a machine produces fluid, it tries to empty itself as fast as the connected pipe allows. - So the extractor empties at `300 m³/min` (the Mk.1 pipe’s limit) until it is empty, then waits. On average it still puts out its `120 m³/min`. The `600` is what it could do with a Mk.2 pipe and no valve in the way. ## Pressure and head lift Pipes have two kinds of pressure. Only one of them is worth your attention. The two are Head Lift and Work Pressure. We will only talk about head lift here, because work pressure is neither easily manipulated nor easily noticed. - **Head lift determines the maximum height fluid can flow to.** Everything else about it follows from that one sentence. - It is transmitted **through full pipes** and does **not** decline along them. A `50 m` pump still has `50 m` at the far end of a full pipe. - The exception is an **unpowered pump**: it sets the head lift on its exit side to `0 m`. Valves do not block head lift. - Head lift is only about verticality. **Horizontal pipes do not need it** to keep their flow rate up. > **Gas is different:** Gas does not have head lift — its flow rate depends only on how full the pipe is. That means **a pipeline pump does nothing for gas**, and a Fluid Buffer cannot compensate a gas flow rate either, because a buffer needs head lift to output at maximum speed. > **Pumps on flat pipes are still useful:** It can still be worth putting a pump on a horizontal pipeline (not for gas): it **reduces the time fluid needs to reach the destination**. On a pipeline that dips through valleys, a pump in each valley noticeably speeds up filling. | Source | Head lift | With the ~12 % tolerance | | --- | --- | --- | | Normal machines (Water Extractor, Fluid Freight Platform, …) | 10 m | ≈ 12 m | | Pipeline Pump Mk.1 | 20 m | ≈ 22 m | | Pipeline Pump Mk.2 | 50 m | ≈ 55 m | | Fluid Buffer (400 m³) | up to 8 m | depends on fill level | | Industrial Fluid Buffer (2400 m³) | up to 12 m | depends on fill level | [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#head-lift) > **Do not build at the limit:** Go above the maximum head lift and the flow rate drops to `0 m³/min` — not “a bit slower”, but nothing at all. The `12 %` tolerance is a measurement, not a design allowance: **build your factories so you are not near the limit**. ## Flow management How much pipe do you actually need? Less than you think — as long as you count the right thing. > **Junctions have no flow rate limit:** A Pipeline Junction – the Pipeline Junction – is not a pipe. It can pass any amount through it; only the **pipe segments** between junctions are capped at `300` or `600 m³/min`. That is why a network can move far more than one pipe’s worth of fluid. Take six machines that each need `100 m³/min`, on Mk.1 pipe. Feed the row with `300 m³/min` from the left and `300 m³/min` from the right and it works: the left `300` is exactly enough for the first three taps, the right `300` for the other three. In fact the pipe in the middle is not even needed — the two halves never exchange fluid. Now make each output `150 m³/min` and feed the row from two points inside it. It looks like a bottleneck, and it is not: the junction in the middle reads `In: 450 / Out: 450`, while **no single pipe ever carries more than ****`300`**. Eight inputs of `100 m³/min` each are `800 m³/min` in total. How many pipes do you need to carry that away? Three — and each of them carries `266.66 m³/min`, not `300 / 300 / 200`. Pipes try to have equal pressure everywhere, so the work pressure divides evenly over the three outputs: `800 / 3 = 266.666`. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#flow-management) [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#flow-management) > **3 × Water Extractor : 8 × Coal-Powered Generator:** The classic ratio is the same idea. `240 m³/min` enter from one end (two extractors) and `120 m³/min` from the other (one extractor), eight generators draw `45 m³/min` each, and **nowhere does any pipe exceed the ****`300 m³/min`**** limit**. ## Pipeline pumps Pumps are attachments that increase the pressure inside a pipeline. They do not make it flow faster. A pipeline pump – a Pipeline Pump Mk.1 or a Pipeline Pump Mk.2 – raises head lift, and nothing else. It does **not** increase flow rate, and it is **not** needed on pipelines that never move upwards. ![Two pipeline pump attachments mounted on pipe sections](/img/wiki/pipeline-manual/pumps-mk1-mk2.webp) Pipeline Pump Mk.1 — 20 m head lift (max. 22 m) · Pipeline Pump Mk.2 — 50 m head lift (max. 55 m) - They **prevent backflow** — pumps are one-directional. - They **generate a blue hologram ring** that stops where their head lift ends. The ring can travel at most `100 m`, so on a long diagonal pipeline you may not see it stop. - They have **no flow rate limit** of their own; Mk.1 and Mk.2 pipes both work with them. - They **snap to the hologram ring of other pumps**, which makes spacing a long climb easy. - Pump head lift **does not stack** with another pump’s — but it **does** stack with head lift gained from gravity after the pump. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#pumps) - Head lift is measured **from the centre of the pipe or pump**, and always **upwards** — never downwards. Fluids flow down on their own; they do not need to be pushed. - The **output side always has the striped ring**. If you are not sure which way a pump faces, look for the stripes. - A pump on a flat, horizontal pipe shows about `1.5 m` of head lift. That is the default pressure, not a bug. - Pumps also apply head lift **when they sit on the horizontal part** of a pipeline — the fluid will rise once the pipe starts going up. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#pumps) ## Fluid buffers Buffers store fluid — and, less obviously, they generate head lift that depends on how full they are. | Buffer | Capacity | Height | Port height | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | Fluid Buffer | 400 m³ | 8 m | 1.5 m | | Industrial Fluid Buffer | 2400 m³ | 12 m | 1.5 m | To **fill** a buffer, the connected pipe has to supply a head lift equal to the buffer’s height: `8 m` for the small one, `12 m` for the industrial one. A machine’s `10 m` will fill a small buffer, but not an industrial one. What a buffer **gives back** is proportional to the fluid inside it. A half-full industrial buffer generates `6 m` of head lift, a half-full small buffer `4 m`. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#buffers) > **The 1.5 m output limitation:** Filling and emptying a buffer has a small catch: **unless it has ****`1.5 m`**** of head lift, it will not output fluid as fast as it flows in**. Feed an empty small buffer `300 m³/min` and, for a while, almost nothing comes out the other side. It needs about `75 m³` inside — the industrial buffer about `300 m³` — before it reaches that `1.5 m` and can match the input. Buffers that are connected to each other try to balance themselves out. **In series** that leads to heavy sloshing back and forth; **in parallel** the odd sloshing is mostly resolved. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#buffers) > **Where buffers earn their place:** Their main use is production lines whose **output is very discontinuous or fluctuates a lot** — a Fluid Freight Platform is the obvious case. There are also more specialised uses in the regulation circuits of chapter 03. ## Valves Valves do two things: they stop backflow, and they cap the flow rate of a pipe. - A Valve – the Valve – is a pipe attachment that **does not allow backflow** and makes it possible to **limit the pipe’s flow rate**. - Set the limit by moving the slider or typing a number — **press Enter to confirm**. - Valves have a slight display bug: the flow rate they show is inaccurate. Used correctly they still do their job. The catch is the same one as everywhere else in this guide. When the pressure inside the pipe is not big enough — that is, when the pipe is not full — **a valve outputs less than the limit it is set to**. The manual’s example: `240 m³/min` arriving, valve set to `120`, and only `60 m³/min` coming out. Once the pipe is full and the pressure is back, the valve passes its `120`. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#valves) > **Never leave one branch unlimited:** Split `300 m³/min` into two branches and put a `150` valve on only one of them, and most of the fluid goes down the pipe **without** a valve — the manual measured `200` there against `100` through the valve. When flow is split across several pipes, make the **input flow equal the sum of the flow limits**, and give every branch its own valve. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#valves) > **Valves in series cost time, not throughput:** Several valves in a row suffer from the same problem: until the pipe on a valve’s **input** side is full, it does not output at its set rate. Chain three `120` valves and a fresh network settles at around `90 m³/min` for a while. It gets there in the end — once the pipes are full, that network outputs its `120 m³/min` as intended — but the extra valves only add delay. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#valves) > **Networks at the full 600 m³/min:** For pipe networks carrying `600 m³/min` in one pipeline, that reversal happens **at the very first junction**, with or without valves, and it is the reason such networks suddenly lose flow rate: fluid flows back into the junction and interrupts the input. The only reliable way around it is **not to use the full pipe capacity**. ## Troubleshooting Pipe problems fall into three families. Work through them in order — the later ones are much harder to diagnose. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#troubleshooting) > **Two things that are easy to miss:** If **one output of a machine with several outputs** backs up, the machine stops producing entirely — a refinery with a blocked water output will not make its main product either. And you can always delete fluid by dragging it into the trash can in your inventory, which is the fastest way to unstick a test setup. > **Use flush deliberately:** The **flush** function empties a pipe segment. That makes it a measuring instrument: flush, then watch how the segment fills and what flow rate it settles at. If the number still makes no sense afterwards, the cause is in a different lesson. ## Manifolds A manifold is any arrangement of pipes and junctions connected in series. Because pipes and junctions are bidirectional, a manifold ultimately balances itself. That self-balancing is what makes manifolds attractive: build a row of machines, run one feed pipe past them, and the network sorts out the distribution on its own. As easy as that sounds, there are rules that decide whether it works well or badly. 1. **Build the feed pipeline level with or above the machine inputs:** Never below them. Head lift is the same for every pipe in the network, so a feed pipe that sits low has to raise the whole network to the same fluid height before any machine is served. 2. **Prefill the machines:** A machine input can hold `50 m³` of fluid. Make sure it is full — a full internal storage means the machine only ever consumes as much as it actually needs. 3. **If problems remain, close the network into a loop:** A loop injects fluid from both ends and avoids losses. It also resolves the backflow issue from knowledge check 3. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#manifolds) > **Why a low feed pipe is inefficient:** No machine gets fed until the entire pipe network has reached the same fluid level. The problem is what happens next: **as soon as that level drops, no machine gets enough fluid any more** — they all starve together instead of one at a time. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#manifolds) > **How much of this do you need?:** Most of these measures are needed for pipe networks running at the **maximum flow rate of ****`600 m³/min`**. Below that, a plain manifold with the feed pipe at the right height usually just works. ## Recycling byproducts Some processes — aluminium above all — hand you a fluid byproduct that has to go somewhere. Feeding it straight back is the obvious move, and it is a trap. Basic aluminium processing: `120/min` Bauxite and `180 m³/min` Water go into the first Refinery, which produces `120 m³/min` Alumina Solution plus `50/min` Silica. The second one turns that Alumina Solution and `60/min` Coal into `180/min` Aluminum Scrap — **and ****`60 m³/min`**** of ****Water**. Most pioneers try to feed that water back into the first refinery. Without any additional work the second refinery gets clogged: the junction in front of the first refinery now carries `240 m³/min` — `180` fresh plus `60` returned — into an input that only takes `180`. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#byproducts) > **There is a fifth way:** A special circuit can solve this too, without underclocking anything: the **Variable Input Priority Junction** in chapter 03 gives the returned water priority over the fresh water and throttles the extractors automatically. ## Flow rate filters Two small builds that smooth out a jumpy flow rate so you can actually read it. These are not really “circuits” — they are pipe builds — but it is easier to refer to them that way. Both leave the **valve limit untouched**: they change how steady the flow is, not how much of it there is. If a circuit feels unstable, try adding pumps to its input and output. ![Flow Equalizer sample build: a fluid buffer over a pipe run with a valve between two junctions](/img/wiki/pipeline-manual/build-equalizer.webp) Flow Equalizer — sample build The **Flow Equalizer** reduces flow rate fluctuations. It stores fluid when there is too much and discharges it when there is too little. In the manual’s example a pipe swinging between `30` and `150 m³/min` comes out at `65` to `115 m³/min`. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#flow-filters) ![Flow Compensator sample build: two fluid buffers tied into one pipe run with a valve](/img/wiki/pipeline-manual/build-compensator.webp) Flow Compensator — sample build The **Flow Compensator** is an improved Equalizer — you could call it the Equalizer Mk.2. It reduces fluctuations even more, but it is **much slower and a bit unstable**. The same `30` to `150 m³/min` pipe leaves it at roughly `90 m³/min`. Even the very dynamic Mk.2 pipes, which often fluctuate wildly, can be tamed by it. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#flow-filters) [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#flow-filters) > **What are they actually for?:** Mostly neatness. If you find a fluctuating pipe, one of these will stabilise it and make the proper flow rate easy to read — which is worth a lot when you are debugging a network. ## Variable priority junctions Two builds that turn a plain junction into a priority device: one for inputs, one for outputs. ![Variable Input Priority Junction sample build: two pumped inputs at different heights merging into stacked junctions](/img/wiki/pipeline-manual/build-vip.webp) Variable Input Priority [VIP] Junction — sample build The **VIP** prioritises the lowest input. The pipe at the very bottom flows freely, while the ones above it are blocked — unless the output allows more flow. **Remember to power the pumps.** For more priority levels, extend the VIP upwards with more inputs; the minimum is 2 inputs and 1 output. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#priority-junctions) ![Variable Output Priority Junction sample build: one pumped input feeding three stacked junctions with valves](/img/wiki/pipeline-manual/build-vop.webp) Variable Output Priority [VOP] Junction — sample build The **VOP** prioritises the lowest output. It fills the output pipe at the very bottom first; once that is full, it fills the next one up. It is essentially an expanded Overflow Junction. Valve limits on the branches set the desired flow per pipe. Extend it upwards for more levels; the minimum is 1 input and 2 outputs. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#priority-junctions) [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#priority-junctions) > **They combine:** Both circuits can be built into one for **input and output priority at the same time** — the usual shape for a refinery block that both recycles a byproduct and feeds several consumers in order. ## Head lift tricks Three builds that use head lift as a mechanism rather than as a constraint. ![Overflow Junction sample build: a pumped pipe reaching a junction, one branch going straight on and one over a small rise](/img/wiki/pipeline-manual/build-overflow.webp) Overflow Junction — sample build The **Overflow Junction** diverts any flow that does not fit into the bottom pipe. It only becomes active once the bottom exit backs up — then the extra flow moves over a little “heap”, around `8 m` tall. The pump is there to give the fluid enough head lift to cross that rise no matter what; it does not make the overflow active any earlier. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#head-lift-tricks) ![Water Tower sample build: a fluid buffer mounted high on a tower with a pipe climbing to it](/img/wiki/pipeline-manual/build-water-tower.webp) Water Tower — sample build The **Water Tower** is a Fluid Buffer many metres off the ground. Every pipe connected below it runs **without pumps**, as long as it stays below the buffer. The valve set to `0 m³/min` in the diagram is what keeps the tower full: without it, the tower has to be constantly refilled. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#head-lift-tricks) ![Two-Way Pump sample build: a pump on a vertical pipe with a junction above and below it](/img/wiki/pipeline-manual/build-two-way-pump.webp) Two-way Pump — sample build The **Two-Way Pump** lets fluid move both up and down. It gives the pipe connected to it the head lift to rise, but **does not prevent backflow**. That makes it a good partner for the Water Tower — and it means fluid can run backwards during a blackout, which is sometimes exactly what you want and sometimes not. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#head-lift-tricks) ## Sample solutions Four applied examples that put the circuits of this chapter to work. [Interactive example](/guides/pipeline-manual#sample-solutions) > **There are more of them:** These are the most useful special circuits. A few more exist, but they are not practical for the general factory purposes of FICSIT pioneers. ## Glossary The vocabulary this guide uses, in one place. ## Source and credits Where this guide comes from, and what we changed. ### A pipe runs up a rock face in three sections. In which order do A, B and C fill up? - A — the lowest section - B — the middle section - C — the top section The order is **A, then B, then C** — bottom to top, and that is gravity doing it. A pipe always flows downwards first if it can, and it only builds enough pressure to push fluid higher once its own volume is full. Until A is completely full there is not enough pressure to fill B, and certainly not enough for C. This is the same rule as “full pipes are happy pipes”, seen from the side: an empty network fills from the bottom up, and every section above the current fluid level stays dry until the one below it is done. ### A pipeline has two bumps: the first is `18 m` tall, the second `22 m`. The pump sits `9 m` up on the first pipe. Is that enough for both? - Yes — one pump is enough for both bumps - No — 22 m is more than a Mk.1 pump can lift - Only the first bump; the second one needs a second pump Yes, and by a comfortable margin: the pump only has to provide **13 m** of head lift. Pump head lift does not stack with another pump’s, but it **does** stack with height regained from gravity after the pump. The pump sits `9 m` up and lifts the fluid the remaining `9 m` to the top of the first bump — that is the first rise. Then the pipe goes back down. Gravity gives that height back for free, so nothing is spent on the descent. From the top of the first bump the second one is only `4 m` higher — the second rise. `9 m + 4 m = 13 m`. A Pipeline Pump Mk.1 provides `20 m`, so it clears both bumps and still has room to spare. ### A pipeline feeds a machine, with a Valve on the input side to prevent backflow. The machine fills up, and so does the input pipe. What happens at the valve? - Everything simply stops — the valve holds the fluid back - The flow appears to reverse: fluid seems to run from the valve’s output back to its input - The valve drains the output pipe back into the network Think of the valve as an ordinary non-return valve: a door inside the pipe that only opens one way. The output pipe of the valve fills up. Once it is full, the valve cannot push any more fluid through it. So both sides of the valve end up full — and fluid always wants to move. With nowhere left to go forward, the movement goes the other way, a bit like two objects colliding and bouncing off each other. From the outside it looks as if fluid is moving **from the output side of the valve back towards the input**. The valve is not leaking; it is what a completely full, blocked pipe looks like. ### Connection issue A missing or bad connection — the cheapest of the three to fix, and worth ruling out first. - A pipe that looks attached but is not. The classic picture: a full pipe, an input that looks perfectly healthy, and the pipe on the other side of the connection somehow empty. - Rebuild the pipes around the connection. This is the one pipe problem the manual solves by deleting and replacing rather than by measuring. ### Head lift issue Usually caused by overestimating the `10 m` a machine provides, or by a badly placed pump. - Counting on more than the `10 m` of Head Lift a normal machine produces. - A pump placed where it cannot help. Head lift is measured from the centre of the pump and only ever upwards. - If the pump is not exceeding its head lift, then **the pipe below it** may be at fault. - Put pumps at good locations, and add more of them if needed. - Check what the source really provides and how high the pipe actually has to climb — the calculator in lesson 2 is there for exactly this. - Flush the network. It is useful for finding pipes that worked before and now fail. - Snapping a pump to a pipeline leaves a bit of pipeline **inside** the pump. Rebuild that piece to reduce its length. ### Flow rate issue The complex one. Only try to solve this once you are sure it is not a connection or a head lift problem. - Pipes have volume and take time to fill. **A pipe that is not full enough does not have the same flow rate as the pipe feeding it.** - The arithmetic is wrong — a machine needs or produces something other than what you assumed. - One output of a machine with several outputs has backed up, so the machine has stopped producing entirely. - Give the network time to fill, then measure again. - Do not guess how much a machine needs or produces. Go and check. - Check the flow rate at several points along the pipeline, so you can narrow down where the problem starts. - Prefer short pipe networks. It is always easier to process fluids near their source. - Use flush to reset a segment and watch how it fills — if the number still makes no sense, the cause belongs to a different lesson. ### Underclock the Water Extractor and limit it with a valve Unstable. Run the extractors at `120 m³/min` instead of `180` and put a valve set to `120 m³/min` behind them for extra safety; the `60 m³/min` coming back makes up the difference. This only works while **every machine runs at 100 % efficiency** — otherwise it is very unstable. ### Dedicate some refineries to the water byproduct Most stable. Split the block: some refineries run on fresh water, others run **only** on the water that comes back. In the manual’s example `360 m³/min` of fresh water feeds one pair while the `180 m³/min` byproduct feeds the other. The manual calls this the most stable solution. ### Feed the water into other machines Practical. Water is useful elsewhere, and a Coal-Powered Generator is the obvious sink. The byproduct leaves the aluminium loop entirely instead of having to be balanced inside it. ### Package the water and sink it Worst. It works — and it costs a Packager, empty canisters, power and belt capacity to throw away a resource you were handed for free. The manual calls this the worst solution. ### Solving water backup in aluminium processing with a VIP junction The second Refinery hands back `60 m³/min` of water while the first one turns `120 m³/min` of Alumina Solution into Aluminum Scrap. A VIP junction gives the returned water priority, so the fresh water line is throttled to whatever is left — `<180 m³/min` — and nothing backs up. ### Prioritising the Fuel-Powered Generator, then filling the Packager An Overflow Junction sends everything to the Fuel-Powered Generator first. Only what it cannot take carries on to the Packager, where it becomes Jetpack fuel. ### Filling the Fuel-Powered Generator by flooding the pipes A VOP junction with its valve limits set to `600 m³/min` fills row 1 completely, then row 2, then row 3. Flooding is fine here: the generators are the only consumers, so a full pipe is exactly what you want. ### Using a Water Tower to raise many pipes at once One elevated buffer supplies head lift to every branch below it, so a whole row of junctions and machines runs without a single pump of its own. - **Flow Rate:** How much fluid is moving through a pipe right now, in m³/min. It fluctuates; the true value is the average over time. - **Max Flow Rate:** The ceiling of a pipe or a machine output: 300 m³/min on Mk.1 pipe, 600 m³/min on Mk.2. A machine empties itself at this speed whenever it can. - **Current Amount:** The internal volume of a pipe — the bubble icon in its UI. How full it is decides how fast it can flow and whether it transmits head lift. - **Head Lift:** The maximum height fluid can be pushed to, in metres. Transmitted through full pipes without declining; measured from the centre of a pipe or pump, upwards only. - **Work Pressure:** The second kind of pressure in a pipe. It divides evenly over the outputs of a network, which is why 800 m³/min over three pipes gives 266.66 each. Not directly manipulable. - **FluidBox:** The internal fluid container of a pipe, machine or buffer. Everything in this guide is really a statement about how full some FluidBox is. - **Pipeline Junction:** The four-way pipe connector. It has no flow rate limit of its own — only the pipe segments around it are capped. - **Pipeline Pump Mk.1 / Pipeline Pump Mk.2:** A pipe attachment that raises head lift (Mk.1: 20 m, Mk.2: 50 m), prevents backflow and has no flow rate limit. It never increases flow rate. - **Valve:** A pipe attachment that blocks backflow and caps the flow rate to a set limit. It only reaches that limit once its input pipe is full. - **Fluid Buffer:** A storage tank: 400 m³ and 8 m tall, or 2400 m³ and 12 m tall. It generates head lift in proportion to its fill level. - **Manifold:** Pipes and junctions connected in series, feeding a row of machines. Because pipes are bidirectional, a manifold balances itself out. - **VIP — Variable Input Priority Junction:** A build that prioritises the lowest of several inputs; the upper ones only flow when the output has capacity left. - **VOP — Variable Output Priority Junction:** A build that fills the lowest of several outputs first and only moves to the next one up once that has backed up. - **Overflow Junction:** A junction with one exit behind a small rise, so that only the flow which does not fit into the main exit is diverted over it. - **Flush:** The function that empties a pipe segment. Useful as a measuring tool: flush, then watch how the segment refills. ## Source and credits The FICSIT Inc. Plumbing Manual: A Guide to Pipelines “These are only the most useful special circuits. There are a few more, but they are not practical for the general factory purposes of FICSIT pioneers.” “Hopefully, this manual could help you solve some of your factory issues or answer some of your questions.” SatisfactoryBase is not the author of this manual. We rewrote its text so it reads as a guide rather than a slide deck, rebuilt every diagram as a responsive SVG, and turned its worked examples into calculators and knowledge checks. The technical content — every rule, value and conclusion — is the manual’s.