Pipe vs. Shaft — What's the Difference?
By Urooj Arif & Fiza Rafique — Updated on April 16, 2024
Pipes are cylindrical conduits for transporting fluids, gases, or granular materials, while shafts are solid or hollow cylinders that transmit rotational forces.
Difference Between Pipe and Shaft
Table of Contents
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Key Differences
Pipes are primarily designed to transport or convey substances such as water, oil, or gases, based on their hollow structure that allows fluid dynamics. Whereas, shafts are used to transfer rotational mechanical power, highlighting their role in mechanical systems.
In terms of construction, pipes can be made from materials like PVC, steel, or copper, depending on the fluid transported and the pressure conditions. On the other hand, shafts are typically constructed from robust materials like steel or aluminum to withstand torsional forces and mechanical stress.
The design of pipes is influenced by factors such as flow rate, pressure, and chemical compatibility with the transported materials. Meanwhile, shafts are designed considering factors like torque, speed, and alignment to ensure efficient power transmission in machinery.
Pipes are often connected using fittings and can include features like elbows, reducers, and tees to facilitate complex plumbing systems. Whereas, shafts may use components such as bearings, couplings, and gears to interface with other mechanical elements, reflecting their integration into more complex mechanical systems.
Maintenance for pipes involves checking for leaks, corrosion, and blockages to ensure uninterrupted flow. In contrast, maintenance for shafts focuses on alignment, lubrication, and wear inspection to prevent mechanical failures.
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Comparison Chart
Primary Use
Transporting fluids, gases, materials
Transmitting rotational power
Material
PVC, steel, copper
Steel, aluminum
Structure
Hollow cylindrical
Solid or hollow cylindrical
Maintenance
Leak, corrosion, blockage checks
Alignment, lubrication, wear checks
Design Factors
Flow rate, pressure, chemical compatibility
Torque, speed, alignment
Compare with Definitions
Pipe
A tube or hollow cylinder for transporting liquids or gases.
The water supply to the house is carried through a copper pipe.
Shaft
A rotating machine element used to transmit power.
The motor's output is connected to a rotating shaft.
Pipe
A cylindrical conduit made from various materials.
PVC pipes are common in residential plumbing.
Shaft
Often cylindrical, can be solid or hollow.
The elevator's mechanism is driven by a solid steel shaft.
Pipe
Can be rigid or flexible depending on the application.
Flexible pipes are often used in dynamic environments like moving machinery.
Shaft
Integral to systems requiring rotational movement.
All gears in the gearbox are mounted on shafts.
Pipe
Connections often involve fittings such as elbows or tees.
The plumber installed a tee pipe fitting to divide the flow.
Shaft
Requires precision in manufacture and alignment.
Misalignment in a shaft can cause serious mechanical issues.
Pipe
Used in plumbing, irrigation, and industrial applications.
The factory's cooling system uses large steel pipes.
Shaft
Utilizes bearings and couplings for smooth operation.
The shaft runs smoothly thanks to newly installed bearings.
Pipe
A tube used to convey water, gas, oil, or other fluid substances.
Shaft
The long narrow stem or body of a spear or arrow.
Pipe
A device for smoking tobacco, consisting of a narrow tube made from wood, clay, etc. with a bowl at one end in which the tobacco is burned, the smoke from which is drawn into the mouth
A smell of pipe tobacco
Shaft
A spear or arrow.
Pipe
A wind instrument consisting of a single tube with holes along its length that are covered by the fingers to produce different notes
The tone of a reed pipe
Shaft
The handle of any of various tools or implements.
Pipe
A command which causes the output from one routine to be the input for another.
Shaft
One of two parallel poles between which an animal is harnessed to a vehicle.
Pipe
A cask for wine, especially as a measure equal to two hogsheads, usually equivalent to 105 gallons (about 477 litres)
A fresh pipe of port
Shaft
A long, generally cylindrical bar that rotates and transmits power, as the drive shaft of an engine.
Pipe
Convey (water, gas, oil, or other fluid substances) through a pipe or pipes
Water from the lakes is piped to Manchester
Shaft
(Zoology) The main axis of a feather, especially its distal portion.
Pipe
Play (a tune) on a pipe or pipes
He believed he'd heard music—a tune being piped
Shaft
The midsection of a long bone; the diaphysis.
Pipe
(of a bird) sing in a high or shrill voice
Outside at the back a curlew piped
Shaft
The section of a hair projecting from the surface of the body.
Pipe
Decorate (clothing or soft furnishings) with thin cord covered in fabric and inserted into a seam.
Shaft
The body of the clitoris, extending from the root to the glans.
Pipe
Arrange (food, particularly icing or cream) in decorative lines or patterns
She had been piping cream round a flan
Shaft
The body of the penis, extending from the root to the glans.
Pipe
Propagate (a pink or similar plant) by taking a cutting at the joint of a stem.
Shaft
A column or obelisk.
Pipe
A hollow cylinder or tube used to conduct a liquid, gas, or finely divided solid.
Shaft
The principal portion of a column, between the capital and the base.
Pipe
A section or piece of such a tube.
Shaft
A ray or beam of light.
Pipe
A device for smoking, consisting of a tube of wood, clay, or other material with a small bowl at one end.
Shaft
A bolt of lightning.
Pipe
An amount of smoking material, such as tobacco, needed to fill the bowl of a pipe; a pipeful.
Shaft
A long, narrow, often vertical passage sunk into the earth, as for mining ore; a tunnel.
Pipe
A tubular part or organ of the body.
Shaft
A vertical passage housing an elevator.
Pipe
Pipes The passages of the human respiratory system.
Shaft
A duct or conduit for the passage of air, as for ventilation or heating.
Pipe
A large wine cask, especially one having a capacity of 126 gallons or 2 hogsheads (478 liters).
Shaft
The upright portion of a boot that covers the leg.
Pipe
This volume as a unit of liquid measure.
Shaft
A scornful or sarcastic remark; a barb.
Pipe
A tubular wind instrument, such as a flute.
Shaft
(Slang) Harsh, unfair treatment. Often used with the
The management gave the unions the shaft.
Pipe
Any of the tubes in an organ.
Shaft
Vulgar Slang A penis.
Pipe
Pipes A small wind instrument, consisting of tubes of different lengths bound together.
Shaft
To equip with a shaft.
Pipe
Pipes A bagpipe.
Shaft
(Slang) To treat in a harsh, unfair way
"He had been shafted by the press quite a bit" (Frank Deford).
Pipe
Pipes(Informal) The vocal cords; the voice, especially as used in singing.
Shaft
(obsolete) The entire body of a long weapon, such as an arrow.
Pipe
A birdcall.
Shaft
The long, narrow, central body of a spear, arrow, or javelin.
Her hand slipped off the javelin's shaft towards the spearpoint and that's why her score was lowered.
Pipe
(Nautical) A whistle used for signaling crew members
A boatswain's pipe.
Shaft
(by extension) Anything cast or thrown as a spear or javelin.
Pipe
A vertical cylindrical vein of ore.
Shaft
Any long thin object, such as the handle of a tool, one of the poles between which an animal is harnessed to a vehicle, the driveshaft of a motorized vehicle with rear-wheel drive, an axle, etc.
Pipe
One of the vertical veins of eruptive origin in which diamonds are found in South Africa.
Shaft
A beam or ray of light.
Isn't that shaft of light from that opening in the cave beautiful?
Pipe
(Geology) An eruptive passageway opening into the crater of a volcano.
Shaft
The main axis of a feather.
I had no idea that they removed the feathers' shafts to make the pillows softer!
Pipe
(Metallurgy) A cone-shaped cavity in a steel ingot, formed during cooling by escaping gases.
Shaft
(lacrosse) The long narrow body of a lacrosse stick.
Sarah, if you wear gloves your hands might not slip on your shaft and you can up your game, girl!
Pipe
To convey (liquid or gas) by means of pipes.
Shaft
A vertical or inclined passage sunk into the earth as part of a mine
Your grandfather used to work with a crane hauling ore out of the gold mine's shafts.
Pipe
To convey as if by pipes, especially to transmit by wire or cable
Piped music into the store.
Shaft
A vertical passage housing a lift or elevator; a liftshaft.
Darn it, my keys fell through the gap and into the elevator shaft.
Pipe
To provide with pipes or connect with pipes.
Shaft
A ventilation or heating conduit; an air duct.
Our parrot flew into the air duct and got stuck in the shaft.
Pipe
To play (a tune) on a pipe or pipes.
Shaft
(architecture) Any column or pillar, particularly the body of a column between its capital and pedestal.
Pipe
To lead by playing on pipes.
Shaft
The main cylindrical part of the penis.
The female labia minora is homologous to the penis shaft skin of males.
Pipe
To signal (crew members) with a boatswain's pipe.
Shaft
The chamber of a blast furnace.
Pipe
To receive aboard or mark the departure of by sounding a boatswain's pipe.
Shaft
(weather) A relatively small area of precipitation that an onlook can discern from the dry surrounding area.
Pipe
To utter in a shrill reedy tone.
Shaft
To fuck over; to cause harm to, especially through deceit or treachery.
Your boss really shafted you by stealing your idea like that.
Pipe
To furnish (a garment or fabric) with piping.
Shaft
(transitive) To equip with a shaft.
Pipe
To force through a pastry tube, as frosting onto a cake.
Shaft
The slender, smooth stem of an arrow; hence, an arrow.
His sleep, his meat, his drink, is him bereft,That lean he wax, and dry as is a shaft.
A shaft hath three principal parts, the stele [stale], the feathers, and the head.
Pipe
(Slang) To take a look at; notice.
Shaft
The long handle of a spear or similar weapon; hence, the weapon itself; (Fig.) anything regarded as a shaft to be thrown or darted; as, shafts of light.
And the thunder,Winged with red lightning and impetuous rage,Perhaps hath spent his shafts.
Some kinds of literary pursuits . . . have been attacked with all the shafts of ridicule.
Pipe
To play on a pipe.
Shaft
That which resembles in some degree the stem or handle of an arrow or a spear; a long, slender part, especially when cylindrical.
Thou shalt make a candlestick of pure gold . . . his shaft, and his branches, his bowls, his knops, and his flowers, shall be of the same.
Pipe
To speak shrilly; make a shrill sound.
Shaft
The handle or helve of certain tools, instruments, etc., as a hammer, a whip, etc.
Bid time and nature gently spareThe shaft we raise to thee.
Pipe
To chirp or whistle, as a bird does.
Shaft
A humming bird (Thaumastura cora) having two of the tail feathers next to the middle ones very long in the male; - called also cora humming bird.
Pipe
(Nautical) To signal the crew with a boatswain's pipe.
Shaft
A rod at the end of a heddle.
Pipe
(Metallurgy) To develop conical cavities during solidification.
Shaft
A well-like excavation in the earth, perpendicular or nearly so, made for reaching and raising ore, for raising water, etc.
Pipe
Meanings relating to a wind instrument.
Shaft
A long passage for the admission or outlet of air; an air shaft.
Pipe
(musical instrument) A wind instrument consisting of a tube, often lined with holes to allow for adjustment in pitch, sounded by blowing into the tube.
Shaft
The chamber of a blast furnace.
Pipe
(music) A tube used to produce sound in an organ; an organ pipe.
Shaft
A line that forms the length of an arrow pointer
Pipe
The key or sound of the voice.
Shaft
An aggressive remark directed at a person like a missile and intended to have a telling effect;
His parting shot was `drop dead'
She threw shafts of sarcasm
She takes a dig at me every chance she gets
Pipe
A high-pitched sound, especially of a bird.
Shaft
A long rod or pole (especially the handle of an implement or the body of a weapon like a spear or arrow)
Pipe
Meanings relating to a hollow conduit.
Shaft
A column of light (as from a beacon)
Pipe
A rigid tube that transports water, steam, or other fluid, as used in plumbing and numerous other applications.
Shaft
The main (mid) section of a long bone
Pipe
A tubular passageway in the human body such as a blood vessel or the windpipe.
Shaft
Obscene terms for penis
Pipe
(slang) A man's penis.
Shaft
A long pointed rod used as a weapon
Pipe
Meanings relating to a container.
Shaft
A vertical passageway through a building (as for an elevator)
Pipe
A large container for storing liquids or foodstuffs; now especially a vat or cask of cider or wine. (See a diagram comparing cask sizes.)
Shaft
(architecture) upright consisting of the vertical part of a column
Pipe
The contents of such a vessel, as a liquid measure, sometimes set at 126 wine gallons; half a tun.
Shaft
A vertical passage into a mine
Pipe
Meanings relating to something resembling a tube.
Shaft
A revolving rod that transmits power or motion
Pipe
Decorative edging stitched to the hems or seams of an object made of fabric (clothing, hats, curtains, pillows, etc.), often in a contrasting color; piping.
Shaft
The hollow shaft of a feather
Pipe
A type of pasta similar to macaroni.
Shaft
Equip with a shaft
Pipe
(geology) A vertical conduit through the Earth's crust below a volcano through which magma has passed, often filled with volcanic breccia.
Shaft
Defeat someone in an expectation through trickery or deceit
Pipe
(lacrosse) One of the goalposts of the goal.
Pipe
(mining) An elongated or irregular body or vein of ore.
Pipe
An anonymous satire or essay, insulting and frequently libellous, written on a piece of paper which was rolled up and left somewhere public where it could be found and thus spread, to embarrass the author's enemies.
Pipe
Meanings relating to computing.
Pipe
(computing) A mechanism that enables one program to communicate with another by sending its output to the other as input.
Pipe
A data backbone, or broadband Internet access.
A fat pipe is a high-bandwidth connection.
Pipe
Meanings relating to a smoking implement.
Pipe
(smoking) A hollow stem with a bowl at one end used for smoking, especially a tobacco pipe but also including various other forms such as a water pipe.
Pipe
The distance travelled between two rest periods during which one could smoke a pipe.
Pipe
(slang) A telephone.
Pipe
(ambitransitive) To play (music) on a pipe instrument, such as a bagpipe or a flute.
Pipe
(intransitive) To shout loudly and at high pitch.
Pipe
(intransitive) To emit or have a shrill sound like that of a pipe; to whistle.
Pipe
(intransitive) Of a queen bee: to make a high-pitched sound during certain stages of development.
Pipe
Of a metal ingot: to become hollow in the process of solidifying.
Pipe
(transitive) To convey or transport (something) by means of pipes.
Pipe
(transitive) To install or configure with pipes.
Pipe
(transitive) To dab moisture away from.
Pipe
To lead or conduct as if by pipes, especially by wired transmission.
Pipe
) at the command line.
Pipe
To create or decorate with piping (icing).
To pipe flowers on to a cupcake
Pipe
To order or signal by a note pattern on a boatswain's pipe.
Pipe
To see.
Pipe
To invent or embellish (a story).
Pipe
A wind instrument of music, consisting of a tube or tubes of straw, reed, wood, or metal; any tube which produces musical sounds; as, a shepherd's pipe; the pipe of an organ.
Now had he rather hear the tabor and the pipe.
Pipe
Any long tube or hollow body of wood, metal, earthenware, or the like: especially, one used as a conductor of water, steam, gas, etc.
Pipe
A small bowl with a hollow stem, - used in smoking tobacco, and, sometimes, other substances.
Pipe
A passageway for the air in speaking and breathing; the windpipe, or one of its divisions.
Pipe
The key or sound of the voice.
Pipe
The peeping whistle, call, or note of a bird.
The earliest pipe of half-awakened birds.
Pipe
The bagpipe; as, the pipes of Lucknow.
Pipe
An elongated body or vein of ore.
Pipe
A roll formerly used in the English exchequer, otherwise called the Great Roll, on which were taken down the accounts of debts to the king; - so called because put together like a pipe.
Pipe
A boatswain's whistle, used to call the crew to their duties; also, the sound of it.
Pipe
A cask usually containing two hogsheads, or 126 wine gallons; also, the quantity which it contains.
Pipe
To play on a pipe, fife, flute, or other tubular wind instrument of music.
We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced.
Pipe
To call, convey orders, etc., by means of signals on a pipe or whistle carried by a boatswain.
Pipe
To emit or have a shrill sound like that of a pipe; to whistle.
Pipe
To become hollow in the process of solodifying; - said of an ingot, as of steel.
Pipe
To perform, as a tune, by playing on a pipe, flute, fife, etc.; to utter in the shrill tone of a pipe.
A robin . . . was piping a few querulous notes.
Pipe
To call or direct, as a crew, by the boatswain's whistle.
As fine a ship's company as was ever piped aloft.
Pipe
To furnish or equip with pipes; as, to pipe an engine, or a building.
Pipe
A tube with a small bowl at one end; used for smoking tobacco
Pipe
A long tube made of metal or plastic that is used to carry water or oil or gas etc.
Pipe
A hollow cylindrical shape
Pipe
A tubular wind instrument
Pipe
The flues and stops on a pipe organ
Pipe
Utter a shrill cry
Pipe
Transport by pipeline;
Pipe oil, water, and gas into the desert
Pipe
Play on a pipe;
Pipe a tune
Pipe
Trim with piping;
Pipe the skirt
Common Curiosities
What must be considered when designing a shaft?
Factors like torque, load, and rotational speed.
What materials are commonly used to make pipes?
PVC, steel, and copper are common materials.
Are shafts always made of metal?
Mostly, but composite materials are also used for specific applications.
Can pipes handle both liquids and gases?
Yes, they are designed to handle both, depending on their specifications.
What is the main function of a pipe?
To transport fluids or gases from one point to another.
How are pipes typically joined?
Through various fittings such as elbows, tees, and couplings.
What are common uses of shafts?
Transmitting power in machines and vehicles.
What is the difference in maintenance between pipes and shafts?
Pipes require checks for leaks and corrosion, while shafts need lubrication and wear checks.
How do you maintain a shaft?
Regular lubrication and checking for alignment and wear.
How does the material affect the choice of pipe?
Material choice depends on the chemical compatibility and pressure requirements.
Why are some shafts hollow?
To reduce weight and material cost while maintaining strength.
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Written by
Urooj ArifUrooj is a skilled content writer at Ask Difference, known for her exceptional ability to simplify complex topics into engaging and informative content. With a passion for research and a flair for clear, concise writing, she consistently delivers articles that resonate with our diverse audience.
Co-written by
Fiza RafiqueFiza Rafique is a skilled content writer at AskDifference.com, where she meticulously refines and enhances written pieces. Drawing from her vast editorial expertise, Fiza ensures clarity, accuracy, and precision in every article. Passionate about language, she continually seeks to elevate the quality of content for readers worldwide.
